Application infrastructure platform (AIP)

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is an application infrastructure platform (AIP) having an application service provider (ASP) environment including multiple ASP systems providing application services to customers, and a common services environment including hardware and software and management systems providing to the ASP systems applications and integrated application, back-office, and management services used by the ASP systems in delivering their application services to their customers. In another aspect, the AIP is associated with a development and test bed environment which conducts product and service development and testing.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is related to, and claims the benefit of theearlier filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of, U.S. Provisional PatentApplication (Serial No.: 60/341,222), filed Dec. 20, 2001, entitled“APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORM (AIP)”, the contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to Information Technology (IT)systems and services, and more particularly to an ApplicationInfrastructure Platform (AIP) providing comprehensive services includingintegrated Application Service Provider (ASP), Independent ServiceVendor (ISV), and the like services, software and hardware.

ACRONYMS

[0003] The written description uses a large number of acronyms andtechnical terms to refer to various systems, services, and components.Although generally known, use of several of these acronyms or terms isnot strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of this discussion,acronyms and terms therefore will be defined as follows: AAAAuthentication, Authorization, and Accounting AIP ApplicationInfrastructure Platform API Application Programmers Interface ASApplication Servers ASP Application Server Provider ATM AsynchronousTransfer Mode BR/FW Border Router/Firewall BSS Business Support ServicesB2B Business-to-Business B2C Business-to-Consumer CAD Computer AssistedDesign CCB Change Control Board COTS Commercial Off The Shelf CPECustomer Premise Equipment CRM Customer Rules Management CSCommunication Server Dev Env Development Environment DNS Domain NameSystem DMZ Demilitarized Zone EAI Enterprise Application Integration EJBEnterprise Java Beans ERP Enterprise Resource Planning GPS GlobalPositioning System GW Gateway HDML Handheld Device Markup Language HRHuman Resources HSP Hosting Service Provider HTML Hyper Text MarkupLanguage HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol IASA Integrated ApplicationSupport Architecture IDC Internet Data Center IDS Intrusion DetectionSystem IED Internet Enabled Devices ISP Internet Service Provider ISVIndependent Service Vendor IT Information Technology JSP Java ServerPages LAN Local Area Network LDAP Lightweight Directory Access ProtocolMOM Message Oriented Middleware MTA Message or Mail Transfer Agent NATNetwork Address Translation NAS Network Attached Storage NOC NetworkOperations Center OSS Operational Support System PBX Private BranchExchange or Automatic Switch POTS Plain Old Telephone Service PDAPersonal Digital Assistant PKI Public Key Infrastructure PSTN PublicSwitched Telephone Network QoS Quality of Service RA Regional AuthorityRDBM Relational Database Management RE Rules Engine RFP Request forProposal RS Redirect Server RTP Real Time Protocol SAN Storage AreaNetwork SCE Service Creation Environment SCM Service Creation ManagementSI System Integration or System Integrator SIP Session InitiationProtocol SLA Service Level Agreement SME Small to Medium Enterprise SOCSecurity Operations Center SS7 Signaling System 7 STT Speech to Text SWSwitch TDM Time Division Multiplexing TTS Text to Speech UA UbiquitousAccess UA/VB Ubiquitous Access Voice Browser UM Unified Messaging VBVoice Browser or Voice Browsing VLAN Virtual LAN VoIP Voice overInternet Protocol VPN Virtual Private Network WAP Wireless ApplicationProtocol WBIC Web Based Interaction Center WFM Work Flow Management orWork Flow Manager WFM/RE Work Flow Manager and Rules Engine WML WirelessMarkup Language WS Web Server XML eXtensible Markup Language XPM X (=user, customer, service, device, security, etc.) Profile Management

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The evolution of the information technology (IT) industry hasprogressed from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to ApplicationService Providers (ASPs), to Independent Service Vendors (ISVs), andrelated providers. Application Service Providers (ASPs) offer theircustomers a mix of custom services, off-the-shelf applications, andIndependent Service Vendor (ISV) services. The end users of the ASPservices are the employees or customers of the ASP corporate customers.Each ASP is a unique, one-off implementation, although the ASPs sharearchitectures that are roughly identical. An ASP independently solvesthe same set of problems associated with running their business, such asservice creation, provisioning, policy management, security, CustomerResource Management (CRM), directory service, access, and billing.

[0005] Concurrent with this evolution, global services companies areoffering varied and comprehensive digital and e-business services; theseservices are similar to those of the ASP and ISV services. In manyinstances, such companies are also engaged in ongoing research anddevelopment activities, addressing problems on a repetitive basis anddeveloping a portfolio of legacy technology.

[0006] The number of core features required by new applications hasgrown dramatically, thus requiring greater expertise in many new areas.Traditionally, common system development was predominantly confined tocommunication, alarming, billing, and support issues. These new areas,for example, include comprehensive security for even the smallestInternet application, the understanding and implementation of many moreprotocols for ubiquitous access, and a common profile management systemacross applications to implement a “Single-Sign-on” system.

[0007] Thus there is a need for a vehicle to enable more efficient useof available capabilities and expertise and, at the same time,effectively provide a wide variety of selectable capabilities andservices of a dynamic and scalable nature.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] These and other needs are addressed by the present invention inwhich an Application Infrastructure Platform (AIP) supplies applicationsand services (as well as content) to the ASPs. These applications andservices are customized by the ASP for rent or resale to its customers.The AIP may aggregate its own applications and services with those ofboth external ASPs/ISVs and its own ASPs into an AIP's Product Catalog.The aggregate AIP Product Catalog may then be subscribed to by its ASPs.In an exemplary embodiment, the AIP delivers applications and servicesto the ASPs, which pass these services through to their end customers(or consumers). The AIP also provides common management services to oneor more ASPs. The AIP advantageously relieves the ASPs and other serviceproviders (SPs) of the need to be experts in building an infrastructureand allows the ASPs to focus their efforts on developing their marketniche solutions.

[0009] In one aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, a methodfor providing services and content over a network is disclosed. Themethod includes presenting services including application level servicescommon to a plurality of providers that offer the common services to aplurality of users corresponding to the plurality of providers, theservices being accessible via the network. The method also includesintegrating a service specific to one of the plurality of the providers,and selectively presenting the specific service associated with the oneprovider to another one of the plurality of providers.

[0010] In another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, acommunication system for providing services and content is disclosed.The system includes a platform that is configured to present a catalogof services including application level services common to a pluralityof providers that offer the common services to a plurality of userscorresponding to the plurality of providers, wherein one of theplurality of the providers provides a specific service. Also, theplatform is configured to integrate the specific service and toselectively present the specific service associated with the oneprovider to another one of the plurality of providers.

[0011] In one aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, anapproach provides an application infrastructure platform (AIP) having anASP environment including multiple ASP systems which provide applicationservices to customer entities for use in end user devices. Ininteractive conjunction with this ASP environment, there is a commonservices environment including hardware and software and managementsystems. The ASP systems are provided with applications and integratedapplication, back-office, and management services used by the ASPsystems in delivering their application services to the customerentities for use in end user devices.

[0012] In another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, anapproach provides an application infrastructure platform (AIP) having anASP environment with multiple ASPs providing application services tocustomer entities, and a common services environment providingapplications and integrated application, back-office, and managementservices to the ASPs. The ASPs are connected by a service bus to thecommon services environment and are connected by a ubiquitous accesssystem to a data network system and to the customer entities. The commonservices environment includes a profile management system, an enrollmentand subscription system, a billing system, workflow management and rulesengine systems, and a customer rules management (CRM) system.

[0013] In another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, anapproach provides an application infrastructure platform (AIP) thatserves to aggregate services provided by the AIP and ASPs allowing theservices to be offered as customized packages to other ASPs and theircustomers. The AIP leverages the service aggregation and then acts as aservice broker by facilitating the delivery of the service from thesource to a third party ASP and their customers.

[0014] In another aspect, the present invention provides an applicationinfrastructure platform (AIP) that is capable of delivering any servicethrough any device and/or media conditioning needed to provide thatservice to the end customer.

[0015] In yet another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention,an approach is disclosed that relates to an application infrastructureplatform (AIP) associated with an interactive development and test bedenvironment for conducting product and service development. The AIPincludes an ASP environment that has multiple ASPs providing applicationservices to customer entities, and a common services environment thatincludes hardware and software and provides applications and integratedapplication, back-office, and management services to the ASPs. In thiscombination the hardware and software that is provided to the ASPsincludes hardware and software from the development and test bedenvironment that has been incorporated into the common servicesenvironment, and is available for use by both the ASPs and developmentenvironment.

[0016] Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention are readily apparent from the following detailed description,illustrating a number of particular embodiments and implementations,including the best mode contemplated for carrying out the presentinvention. The present invention is also capable of other and differentembodiments, and its several details can be modified in various obviousrespects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regardedas illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and notby way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and inwhich like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

[0018]FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram depicting the progressionfrom self contained ASPs to an integrated AIP architecture, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0019]FIG. 2 is a conceptual embodiment of an Application InfrastructurePlatform (AIP) Service framework, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0020]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an ASP configuration.

[0021]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a centralized AIP configuration,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0022]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of Internet Data Centers employing theAIP platform, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0023]FIGS. 6A and 6B are block diagrams of a Distributed AIP DeploymentConfiguration along with Proprietor systems which may be associated andused with the AIP, according to embodiments of the present invention.

[0024]FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a system for providing UbiquitousAccess, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0025]FIG. 8 is a diagram of an exemplary deployment of an AIP and itsassociated environments, according to embodiments of the presentinvention.

[0026]FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing the scalability of AIPdeployment, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0027]FIG. 10 is a diagram of the processing path from a customer siteto legacy systems in an AIP model, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0028]FIG. 11 is a diagram of a logical view of typical corporatecustomer infrastructure.

[0029]FIG. 12 is a logical diagram of network components involved invoice calls in the operation of the AIP, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

[0030]FIG. 13 is a diagram of a Proprietor Voice Portal Architecture forenabling voice browsing in AIP operation, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

[0031]FIG. 14 is a logical diagram of the elements involved in providingedge server service in the environment of the AIP methodology, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

[0032]FIG. 15 is a logical diagram of an ASP model, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

[0033]FIG. 16 is a diagram of a logical view of AIP Common Services,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034]FIG. 17 is a diagram of a service management system employed in anAIP environment, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0035]FIG. 18 is a diagram showing the relationship of an IntegratedApplications Support Architecture (IASA) with the Proprietor, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

[0036]FIG. 19 is an event diagram of a Global Service Shared Revenuescenario, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0037]FIG. 20 is a relational diagram of the hierarchy of an AIP,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0038]FIG. 21 is a diagram of a Development Environment (DE) and Testbed(TB), according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0039]FIG. 22 is a diagram of the operational relationships associatedwith Administration and Support, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0040]FIG. 23 is a diagram of a process for setting up of an AIP,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0041]FIG. 24 is a diagram of a self-subscription process and use of AIPservices by an end user, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

[0042]FIG. 25 is an event diagram showing the creation of an AIP,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0043]FIG. 26 is an event diagram showing the addition of an ASP to anAIP, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0044]FIG. 27 is an event diagram showing the enrollment of a customer,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0045]FIG. 28 is an event diagram showing an ASP adding service packs toa corporate portal, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0046]FIG. 29 is an event diagram showing a customer capable of managinguser subscription, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0047]FIG. 30 is an event diagram showing a process in which a customerenables users to self-subscribe, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0048]FIG. 31 is an event diagram showing an end user accessing aservice, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0049] A system, method, and apparatus for providing an ApplicationIntegration Platform (AIP) are described. In the following description,for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forthin order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the presentinvention may be practiced without these specific details or with anequivalent arrangement. In other instances, well-known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the present invention.

[0050]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary environment in which multiple discreteASPs are integrated into an AIP environment. Application ServiceProviders (ASP) 102 have arisen as service vendors that provide webhosting services, including co-location services and hosting tocustomers. The ASPs 102 are attractive because they offer specializedvalue-added services to the employees of corporations through thecorporate portal which they, together with the corporation (who is theircustomer), implement. Further, the ASPs 102 frequently use InternetService Vendors (ISV) to augment their own offerings presented asblended services through a unified corporate portal. Internet ServiceVendors (ISVs) offer unique collections of services over the Internet,such as business automation tools on a leased or per use basis. UnlikeASPs 102, ISVs generally are not an Internet hosting service.

[0051] An ASP 102 may customize and lease its own (or AIP-subscribed-to)applications and services to one or more of its customers. The ASP'scustomers are typically corporate entities, but may also includeindividual consumers. These corporate entities include mostly Small andMedium Enterprises (SME). In addition, the ASP 102 leases corporateportals to corporate customers. The corporate portal is customized bythe ASP 102 to appear as the customer's corporate portal. The corporatecustomer rents their applications and services from the ASP 102 forconsumption by their employees. The ASP 102 also may rent eCommerceapplications to corporate customers to establish their own eCommercesite. Further, the ASP 102 may be its own eCommerce site to eitherBusiness-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C) users.

[0052] The services offered through a corporate portal have also grownmore robust. Instead of purchasing licenses (seats) for employees to usevarious software packages that are installed on their personalcomputers, many corporations find it less burdensome to lease softwareon a per use basis. Commonly used products such as MS EXCEL and WORD aswell as a host of other products are now available for lease as thin orthick clients (as appropriate for the application) through corporateportals.

[0053] The ASP 102, to the extent of its financial and operationalabilities, independently provides its own Business Support Services(BSS) 104, Operational Support System (OSS) 106, Content 108,Applications 110, and Access 112. By way of example, the BSS 104provides various business functions, such as billing, accounting, andprovisioning. The OSS 106, for example, supplies network managementfunctionalities as well as a trouble ticketing system. The Access 112includes communication interfaces and systems to provide ubiquitousaccess, which is desired by most ASPs.

[0054] By and large, independent ASPs 102 are unable to afforddevelopment and maintenance of these systems 104, 106, 108, 112. Whensuch an ASP 102 is operated in the environment of an ApplicationInfrastructure Platform (AIP) 114, the AIP 114 provides BSS 116, OSS118, Content 120, and Access 122 from a well-stocked common source insystems existing in the AIP 114. The individual ASPs 102 operate withthe use of these Common Services in addition to their individualcustomized services. Further, in an exemplary embodiment, the individualASPs 102 may make available some of their custom services to other ASPs102 operating within the AIP 114. Through this unique combinationalarrangement, the capabilities of each ASP 102 are significantlyextended.

[0055] The AIP 114, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention, is conceptually a provider of comprehensive services for ASPs102—i.e., an “ASP” for ASPs. In this manner, efficiencies can beattained with respect to development cost and access to expertise. TheAIP 114 provides a complete beginning-to-end capability to host ASPs102. The AIP 114 assumes the role of ISP in that it provides an ASP 102with access to the Internet. Also, the AIP 114 has the role of hostingweb sites in that it offers web-hosting centers to house hosted andco-located servers for ASPs 102 in which it provides rack space, power,security, and network connectivity. In the role of an ASP 102, the AIP114 provides a collection of applications and services to the hostedASPs 102; the ASPs 102 in turn may repackage and resell to theircustomers as corporate portals. These packages include e-Business,e-Tailing, human relations, office automation, and others that are morecost-effectively rented than purchased by the ASP customer.

[0056] Additionally, the AIP 114 supports a development environment thatis accessible from, a public data network, such as the Internet, tosupport development by a system integrator (SI), ASPs 102, and ISVs. TheAIP 114 provides a Test Bed to integrate the solutions into a test AIPenvironment and for staging solutions and updates for deployment to AIPs114 over the Internet.

[0057] The AIP 114 combines (i.e., integrates) applications, services,content to ASPs 124. By way of example, these AIP capabilities mayinclude Profile Management, Billing, Provisioning, Customer Care,Communications, Presentation (Web), and Application Deployment. Theusers of the AIP may include (1) the Proprietor's personnel (e.g.,engineers), and (2), the Proprietor's customers, who buy and use it toreduce their infrastructure costs by having standard access to the AIPunique suite of capabilities. These applications and services arecustomized by the ASP 124 for rent or resale to customers of the ASP124.

[0058] The AIP 114 may also aggregate its own applications and serviceswith those of both external ASPs/Internet Service Vendors (ISVs) and itsown ASPs into a “Product Catalog.” The aggregate AIP Product Catalog maythen be subscribed to by its ASPs 124. In other words, the AIP 114delivers applications and services to the ASPs 124, which pass theseservices through to their end customers (or consumers). Furthermore, theAIP 114 provides common management services to one or more ASPs 124,thereby sharing the management costs among multiple ASPs.

[0059] The AIP 114 may employ a best of breed (i.e., select-the-best)approach to implement applications and services, which may beoff-the-shelf, to populate an infrastructure. The AIP 114 integratesapplications and services together by binding them in a loosely coupledarrangement through the use of multiple technologies including, forexample, message busses, Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), Workflow Managers(WFMs), and Rules Engines (REs). Message busses allow messages to besent once and be received by many recipients; this has the added benefitthat network traffic is reduced because messages are transmitted onlyonce on a subnet. Enterprise Java Beans are encapsulated Java componentsthat provide common capabilities such as transaction management,security, and resource pooling placed on servers other than a webserver. This approach, thus, minimizes from the loading on the webserver by load balancing across other servers. Workflow Managers supportthe automation of complex multi-step tasks, which may be tedious manualprocesses. Rule Engines provide mechanisms for determining when anactivity should be initiated based on monitored events. Rules Enginesand Workflow Management engines work cooperatively to determine theappropriate course of action in response to an event.

[0060] Users of the unique AIP platform may be categorized into twocommunities: global digital service providers—one of which may be theAIP Proprietor; and independent ASPs and XSPs, who use the AIP platformand service. The Proprietor may utilize the AIP 114 not only to servethe ASP customers, but also internally to support its own ASP and ISVservices, and own development and test activities. The AIP 114 may alsoprovide the ASPs with a way to reduce their infrastructure costs as wellas a mechanism to obtain standard access to the Proprietor's uniquebroad range of capabilities. In addition, the ASPs 124 may use the AIP114 for development purposes in much the same manner as the Proprietor.

[0061] Thus, the AIP 114 supplies both the Proprietor and ASPs withcommon services to avoid redundancy in new projects (i.e., products andservices), and may also use the AIP 114 to make new services available.Because the AIP 114 provides both the software and hardwareinfrastructure, there are economies of scale that arise from the use ofshared resources that allow the AIP 114 to deliver service at a reducedcost. The AIP 114 also provides services at a reduced service deliverycost by billing the ASP on a pay-as-you-go basis, rather than having theASP purchase software and hardware up front.

[0062] The Proprietor, through the AIP 114, may act as an “ApplicationInfrastructure Provider” by offering a tested and integrated environmentwith an infrastructure that supports the technical and businessprocesses that underlie ASP services. The AIP 114 provides the core for“gluing” services together, and offering common services andapplications that can be used in conjunction with each other andASP-specific capabilities. The AIP 114 also provides the Proprietor theopportunity to leverage the platform to support other Proprietorprojects.

[0063] As evident from the above discussion, the AIP 114 creates aunique extension of an evolutionary trend in the business use of theInternet, by combining application services in form of a productcatalog. Initially, access to the Internet was provided through InternetService Providers (ISP). The ISPs provide dial-up access, email, andgeneral access to the Internet. These ISPs also provide web hostingservices so that custom web sites could be developed and accessed. As aresult, corporations have employed ISPs to provide Internet access andhave developed their own internal web sites, some of which were“Internet facing” and others “employee facing.” Through the Internetfacing sites the corporations offer corporate information, goods, andservices. Through the employee facing sites, they provide employees witha variety of self-service packages, access to human resources data,benefits data, and information on stock purchase and sales. Theseemployee-facing sites were often not accessible from the publicInternet, which limited employee access to personnel using computers inthe corporate Internet.

[0064] Other corporations, without the IT assets or technical skill toimplement their own internal sites, outsourced the operation of theirinternal web sites. These corporate web sites (or corporate portals)provide the employees with a wide variety of services including thosethat are provided by third party Internet Service Vendors (ISV).

[0065] The AIP architecture provides a number of advantages, such asscalability, cohesion and coupling. Under this arrangement, the ASPfunctionality, which is highly cohesive, is tightly coupled to commonservices, which is also highly cohesive. These highly cohesive areas maybe successfully loosely coupled via a backbone.

[0066]FIG. 2 provides a simplified conceptual depiction of the AIPService Framework. As shown, the services available in the AIP arecollected into seven logical containers 101-113. Two of thesecontainers, Infrastructure and Resources, possess features and servicesthat support and facilitate the operation of all AIP containers. Theremaining five containers are described in order from the web-facingService Delivery container 105 on the left, to increasingly privateservices on the right.

[0067] End users access the AIP through the Service Delivery container105, which provides the functionality to transform services and contentfor the end user. The Integration container 107 provides the “glue”(i.e., middleware and interfaces) among the AIP Applications 111,Application Services 109, Support Services 113, and Service Delivery 105(i.e., service bus), through the use of Message Oriented Middleware(MOM), Web Services and related technologies. The service bus 105provides both point-to-point delivery of messages and publishes andsubscribes delivery in either reliable or unreliable modes, for example.

[0068] The Application Services container 109 includes services that areshared by most of the AIP applications; such services are AIP supportiveand designed for high reuse. The Application container 111 includesend-user applications that are aggregates of common AIP and unique ASPservices. The Support Services container 113 includes business andoperational services. The functions of these five service containers105, 107, 109, 111, and 113 are more fully below.

[0069] To deliver services and data to end user devices, the ServiceDelivery container 105 performs transformation, presentation, anddelivery functionalities. Specifically, the Service Delivery container105 supports Ubiquitous Access (UA) technologies, which enable accessfrom a multitude of networked devices: Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs), Web browsers, network appliances, Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) phones, and plain old telephone service (POTS) phones. Forexample, Ubiquitous Access provides the ability to access web pagesusing a variety of Internet enabled devices (IED); Ubiquitous Accessmaps web page content onto the small IED displays in such a way as toprovide a content reduced, yet useful interaction.

[0070] Further, Ubiquitous Access enables wireless applications fromgeneral web site content for eCommerce activities as well as generalsurfing. Mobile wireless devices (e.g., smart phones and PDAcombinations) may be used to make localized purchases via, for example,BLUETOOTH technology, ranging from event tickets to exit booth-shoppingcharges. These devices may employ data interfaces that are supported byIEEE 802.11b wireless LAN. Wireless LANs may be readily implemented inprivate as well as public venues (e.g., home offices, airports, shoppingmalls, etc.).

[0071] Portals, as part of the Service delivery container 105, providecustomized content to the end user; the content can contain personal,local, group, or corporate information. That is, portals can have aspecific focus, such as personal portals, business-to-business (B2B)portals, business-to-employee (B2E) portals, and wireless portals.Portals filter, aggregate, and present the data to the end user.

[0072] Further, the Service Delivery container 105 also includes X-form,voice browser, SIP, and streaming content. Traditionally, communicatingprograms have required that there be a relatively detailed and perhapsbit-level understanding by developers of the structure of the messagesthat are exchanged by the programs. As technology, and in particular,technologies supporting web-based computing, has evolved, betterapproaches to understanding the message structure have been developed.For example, Extended Meta-Language is a tagged field specification thatallows messages to be self-defining. Thus, as long as the programmersunderstand what the content of the message will be, then programs can bewritten to recognize the XML encoding and to locate the data expected.VXML extends this capability to include the encoding of voice so that aweb page, for instance, can include references to applets, servlets, andEJBs that return voice content that is played to the user from thedisplayed web page. XML and VXML provide capabilities fundamental to thegeneralization of web access through ubiquitous access.

[0073] A voice browser provides a voice path using automatic and naturallanguage speech recognition to create an interface to web and some voicecompatible applications. Sample applications range from InteractiveVoice Response (IVR) used to access personalized services (e.g., bankaccounts) and intelligent directory searches (e.g., closest locations),to natural speech used to query a site for Commerce search, selection,and transactions. The coupling of UA and the voice browser (i.e., HTMLfiltering/conversion to VXML) enables the access of web sites. SIP is anenabler of Voice Portals, which are specialized applications that areaggregated into a portal of voice accessible services and applications.Voice portals may be accessed through PSTN circuits as well as VoIPcommunications systems.

[0074] In an exemplary embodiment, the Integration container 107 issupported by Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies,which address integration of applications using messaging technology,including a message bus, a Workflow Manager (WFM), and a Rules Engine(RE). The messaging supports point-to-point and publish and subscribetype messaging with varying quality of service (QoS) or bandwidthlevels. According to one feature of the present invention, thesequential rules of a process, or Workflow Management (WFM), are definedand stored centrally in the Rules Engine instead of embedded in codethroughout the system. Work Flow Management automates the sequence ofactions necessary to complete a unit of work. A specific work flow isoften initiated when a rule is fired in a rules engine. The Rules Engineevaluates events using a rule base and, when the criteria for a rule ismet, fires the rule; rule firing can result in the initiation of aspecific work flow. Integration also includes version control ofservices within the execution environment and joining multiple directoryservers by using a Meta directory.

[0075] The Application Services container 109 provides common servicesfor the end-user applications, such as Profile Management (xPM),Transaction Management, product cataloging, Application Management,Personalization, and Policy management. A product catalog includes theservices offered by an ASP; thus, when the sum of ASP products areaggregated, the result is an aggregate product catalog. ProfileManagement supports the creating, editing, and deleting of customerprofile information (e.g., customer, group, enterprise, and deviceinformation). Distributed transaction management allows applications toperform reliable transactions on AIP data stores. The personalizationengine provides customized dynamic content based on predefined inferencerules and customer usage habits.

[0076] The Applications container 111 utilizes the Application Services109 to deliver applications to the end-users. This Applicationscontainer 111 supports eCommerce relationships, such asbusiness-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). Theserelationships are supported with product catalogs for the presentationand management of products, shopping carts, order management, and orderprocessing. Unified Messaging is also a part of the Applicationscontainer 111 and provides one common format for the transmission andstorage of messages such as email, voice mail, fax, and video. TheApplications container 111 also includes Content Management foracquiring and aggregating of static and dynamic content, such as news,weather, stock quotes, and syndicated feeds. Directory services are alsosupported by the Applications container 111; for example, corporatedirectories may be employed to allow the lookup of employee informationbased on various search criteria. The AIP, through the Applicationscontainer 111, can also support a variety of business applications;e.g., GREAT PLAINS, PEACHTREE, QUICKEN, MICROSOFT OFFICE, andQUICKBOOKS. These business applications are also examples ofapplications that could be made available by ASPs.

[0077] Additionally, the AIP includes a Support Services container 113to provide operational and business support components from existingsystems of the AIP Proprietor (Proprietor). The container 113 includesOSS functions, such as Trouble Ticketing for defect and problemreporting and management. Another OSS function is Service LevelAgreements (SLA) Management, which is supported through applicationmonitoring and reporting. That is, Service Level Agreement Managementmonitors the performance of the AIP platform against criteria specifiedin various service level agreements and initiates actions whenexceptions to agreements are detected. The SLA performance criteria maybe represented by rules in a Rule Engine, and the exception action isspecified in a workflow.

[0078] Other OSS functions include system management, networkmanagement, and host management. The Support Services container 113further provides BBS functions, which include provisioning, billing, andorder entry. Provisioning of new customers, services, devices, andnetworking are done through Provisioning Management. Billing of AIPcustomers is done through the Billing system. The AIP supports theability to provide billing in several ways. The ASP can receive adetailed bill, which it then breaks down to individual corporate portalsand re-bills to its corporate customers. In addition, the AIP canperform the breakdown for the ASP together with re-branding of servicesand provide a summary to the ASP and bill the ASPs corporate customersdirectly for the ASP. Also, the Support Services container 113 includesa data warehouse, as well as decision support functions.

[0079] As seen in FIG. 2, the Infrastructure services layer 101encompasses fundamental functions that are required to run otherservices, such as security, databases, and gateways. Exemplary securityfunctionality includes firewalls in a DMZ configuration, authenticationand authorization, access control, and Virtual Private Network (VPN)connections to customers. Virtual Private Networking provides theability for end users to access data stored in the AIP across the publicInternet with minimum risk to data integrity and privacy.

[0080] Additionally, advanced security functions may include Public KeyInfrastructure (PKI), Certificate Authorities for strong authenticationfor applications needed by B2Bs, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs), andAntivirus Scanning, as well as include distributed firewalls. TheIntrusion Detection Systems recognize an unauthorized access (“hacker”)attempt and to direct the attempt to a decoy system where unauthorizedactions are recorded for post analysis and prosecution. TheInfrastructure services layer 101 also supports the LightweightDirectory Access Protocol (LDAP), which enables highly scalable, readmostly, logically centralized, and physically distributed access todirectory services. The layer 101 also has Gateways (GW) for providingprotocol conversion and access control functionality needed to integratediverse PSTN, Wireless, and Internet networks.

[0081] Below the Infrastructure services layer 101 is the Resourceslayer 103, which includes end user devices, platforms, data storage, anddevelopment and execution environments that are needed to field the AIP.These end user devices, for example, may include telephones, PCs, IPAppliances, Pagers, Faxes, PDAs, and wireless mobile smart phones (withPDA functionality). The platforms include routers, capacity on demandmidrange servers, and various types of network elements. Data Storageincludes Network Attached Storage (NAS), which are used for CustomerEdge Server storage, and Storage Area Networks (SAN) that provideshighly available, scalable, and secure Internet Data Center (IDC)storage. The Storage Area Network may be a dedicated switched fiberchannel local area network (LAN) that is used exclusively to access diskstorage, providing the ability to manage disk space globally across asuite of processors and to serve additional storage on demand.

[0082] The AIP system and methodology combines a development andexecution environment into one set of capabilities to support bothaspects of the operations of its customers, such as ASPs. Thedevelopment environment provides the tools, component libraries, andSoftware Development Kits (SDKs) needed to rapidly build applications toleverage common services. The execution environment (ExeDev) providesdynamic management of highly available, scalable, and secure processesacross multiple clusters of processors, including capacity-on-demand.

[0083] As evident from the above discussion, the AIP platform providesan advanced infrastructure and development environment, supplies thetechnical and business processes, and presents a tested and integratedenvironment for offering applications from a network. In addition, theAIP platform furnishes a complete, out-of-the-box ASP platform thatdelivers the services and features needed by an ASP for its customers.

[0084] The AIP infrastructure enables a Proprietor to service a numberof different customers: Independent Service Vendors (ISVs), ISV-ASPs,ASP Resellers, ASP Aggregators, Enterprises with Proprietor Hosting, andEnterprises with Internal Hosting. An Independent Service Vendortypically seeks to offer its products through an ASP model, but does notwish to be an ASP. For example, a developer of business accountingsoftware might convert that software so that it could be used as aservice. The developer may then look for an ASP and a reseller tomarket, sell, and support that service.

[0085] An ISV-ASP refers to an Independent Service Vendor that aims todeliver its products through an ASP model. For example, a developer ofhuman resource software might convert that software to an ASP format,host the application through the Proprietor's hosting, then market,sell, and support that software to the ISVs' new and existing customers.An ASP Reseller refers to an ASP that focuses on the marketing andsupport of specific applications developed by third parties; such an ASPdoes not have development expertise of its own. Rather, the ASP Resellerenters into reseller agreements with ISVs, and then delivers services tocustomers based on the licensed software. For example, an ASP Resellermight license software that performs calendar management, contact andsales tracking, and expense management. The ASP Reseller would learn theapplications so that it could market them and provide support tobusiness sales forces.

[0086] An ASP Aggregator refers to an ASP that goes one step beyond theASP Reseller. This ASP develops interfaces and integrations between theapplications it licenses to create application bundles with additionalfunctionality. For example, an ASP Aggregator might license softwarethat does calendar management, contact and sales tracking, and expensemanagement. This user would learn the applications, so that it couldmarket them and provide support to business sales forces. But, then itwould develop communications between the applications to link expensereports to sales calls, create sales records automatically when calendarentries are made, and deliver productivity reports that combine the dataof all three products. An Enterprise with Proprietor Hosting refers to abusiness that seeks to deliver applications to its workforce through anASP model; exemplary applications may include commercial applicationssuch as the MICROSOFT OFFICE suite of office productivity tools. The ASPmodel gives the enterprise better control over distribution and updates.Other applications may be internally developed applications. Forexample, an architectural firm may use an ASP model to deliver basicoffice software and CAD packages to staff. They may also use it todeliver internally developed job costing and RFP response applications.

[0087] An Enterprise with Internal Hosting refers to a business thatdelivers applications to its workforce using an ASP model. The ASP modelprovides the enterprise better control over distribution and updates. Itis noted that applications may be internally developed by theEnterprise. The enterprise is typically a business that is sufficientlylarge to want to host and support its applications in its own datacenters over its own network.

[0088] Through the AIP, the Proprietor can offer a value (or advantagesof use) proposition to each of the various types of customers. Of theelements of the value proposition that follows, some elements are commonto all customers, while other elements are unique to particularcustomers. Accordingly, the AIP permits ASPs to deliver services in acost effective manner, while providing true global reach with the sizeand capability to support the unique needs of their customers.

[0089] In addition, the AIP platform provides a developer environment,whereby the ASPs and ISVs are supplied with the tools, re-use softwarerepositories, workspace, and support they need to quickly prepare theirapplications for service delivery. The AIP platform advantageously savesthe ASP and ISV from having to acquire or develop all of the supportingfunctionality needed to effectively deliver a service. Additionally, theAIP platform greatly shortens time to market, and minimizes start-up andoperational costs.

[0090] The Proprietor may offer its customers, and thus the end users, avariety services including: developer services, hosting services,brokerage services, and marketing services. Developer services includedevelopment tools, AIP connection tools, laboratory space, professionalsupport, professional services, re-use software repository, andapplication certification. Hosting services include collocated, managed,dedicated, or custom hosting. It is noted that AIP Services include theAIP service platform, which encompasses sales rather than service forthe Enterprise with Internet Hosting customer. Brokerage servicesinclude ASP library listing for locating applications, demonstrationenvironment, marketing services to ASPs, marketing services to customerprospects, service assurance options, and brokerage for markingapplication bundles.

[0091]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a start-up ASP configuration. Asseen, the ASP 200 is connected by an Access System 201 (i.e., accessnetwork) to the Internet 203. The Access System 201 performs numerousfunctions, including firewalling, load balancing, web proxying, caching,network address translation (NAT), security proxying, and virtualprivate networking. Load balancing distributes the web page requestsfrom the public Internet across the web servers, in part, to enhanceresponse time for the end user. A firewall 205 resides in front of aCorporate Portal 207, Application Servers 209, Content Server 211,Subscription system 213, Billing system 215, and Self Help system 217.

[0092] The Corporate Portal 207 aggregates corporate content, sites,applications, messaging, and directory services for presentation andselection. Corporate content is the content of a normal corporateIntranet home page, which provides linkages to other corporate sites(e.g., Human Resources, Finance, Travel, etc.), rented applications,corporate applications, unified messaging, and directory services. Thishome page also provides a place for either linking or incorporating apersonal portal. A personal portal is a page for integrating personallinkages and services, like favorite bookmarks and sites. The ratingscheme is that corporate portal is a high utility, and the usage oflogon, initial application selection, or corporate portal access tocorporate content is moderate.

[0093] The Subscription system 213, Billing system 215, and Self Helpsystem 217 have access to a LDAP/RDBM storage 219. The Access network201 also connects to one or more web servers 221, a mail server 223, andoptionally an edge server 225. In an exemplary embodiment, the networkdevices within the ASP 200 communicate in a Virtual LAN (VLAN)environment. The web servers 221 store the web pages constituting accessto the corporate portals provided by the ASPs.

[0094] Corporate Customer sites 227 can receive services from the ASP200 over the Internet 203. A Voice Browser (VB) system 229 responds toconcise set of spoken keywords to obtain information from an audioresponse unit (not shown); the VB system 229 connects to the Internet203 and to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 231 via a switch(SW) 230. The Corporate Customer sites 227 may employ telephones 232that are served by a PBX 233, which connects to the PSTN 231.

[0095] A Gateway 235 is coupled to the Internet 203 and enablescommunication originating from a Wireless Network 237, which serveswireless devices 239 (e.g., PDAs, PCs, cellular phones, and etc.). ACorporate Customer site 227 may include a firewall 241, a VPN function243 (e.g., a VPN server), work stations 245, and one or more applicationservers 247.

[0096]FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an AIP in a centralizedarchitecture. Under this scenario, a central AIP 300 may utilizemultiple ASP systems 301, 303, and 305, which couple to an AIP messagebus 307, to provide application services to the ASPs (and theircustomers) as well as customers of the AIP 300. It is noted that, inanother embodiment of the present invention, the AIP 300 may bedistributed such that these ASP systems 301, 303, and 305 are servicedby numerous AIPs. An AIP Profile and Policy Management System 309 and anEnrollment and Subscription System 311 may access a LightweightDirectory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory 313. Enrollment, in anexemplary embodiment, pertains to corporate customers, whereby thecorporate structure is used to build the profile. The subscriptionprocess permits the users to subscribe to service packages that areestablished based on the profile of the corporation. In other words,customers enroll and build the User profile, Service profile, Deviceprofile, and Security profile to establish service packages that will beoffered to a corporate staff according to the applicable profiles.

[0097] The corporate staff may then subscribe to these establishedpackages, as permitted by the associated profiles. Profile Managementsystem 309 structures and builds profiles based on, for example, theOrganizational Name hierarchy and User, Service, Device, and Securityprofiles; alternatively, the system 309 utilizes the LDAP directory 313,a Meta Directory, and Join Engine to a Corporate Human Resources (HR)database (not shown).

[0098] The Billing system 315 and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)system 317 utilize a shared Relational Database Management (RDBM)storage 319. Customer Relationship Management refers to methodologies,software, and Internet capabilities that help an enterprise managecustomer relationships in an organized way. The AIP 300 further providesa Network Management system 321. These systems 315, 317, 321 maycommunicate via the bus 307. The bus 307 also provides connectivity to aWork Flow Manager and Rules Engine (WFM/RE) system 323.

[0099] Similar to the ASP 200 of FIG. 3, the ASP 305 provides aCorporate Portal system 325, one or more Application Servers 327, and aContent Server 329, which are behind a firewall 331. On the other sideof the firewall 331, one or more Web Servers 333, a Mail Server 335, anda Directory Service system 337 are situated. The AIP 300 is linked tothe Internet 339 via a Ubiquitous Access system 341. As mentionedpreviously, the Ubiquitous Access System 341 performs multiple functionsincluding firewall, load balancer, web proxy/cache, NAT, Security Proxyand virtual private networking. A web cache holds in physical memory ona least frequently used basis the web pages most recently displayed toend users to avoid slow retrieval from disk. A security proxy implementsthe AIP security policies, and maintains copies of the securityprofiles, so that it can rapidly assess UserID/password combinations andgrant access to authorized users.

[0100] The Corporate Customer sites 343 may access the AIP 300 via theInternet 339. As with the system of FIG. 3, A Voice Browser system 345connects to the Internet 339 as well as the PSTN 349 through a switch(SW) 353. Similarly, a gateway 349 ties a wireless network 355 with tothe Internet 339. Under this arrangement, a wireless device 357 mayexchange information over the Internet 339.

[0101] The Corporate customer site 343 essentially resembles that of thecustomer site 227 (FIG. 3). That is, a firewall 359 and a VPN process361 exist to support communication from the workstations 363 and theApplication server 365. Unlike the site 227, in this example, an IPphone 369 is provided; the IP phone 369 connects to an Access system 367to communicate over the Internet 339.

[0102]FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary AIP configuration, as deployed in anInternet Data Center (IDC). An IDC 400 includes an AIP 401, 404 thatserves one or more ASP systems 403; for example, one configuration isshown in FIG. 4. For the purposes of explanation, the AIP 401, 404 isshown as two blocks, in which block 401 refers to the common services,and the block 404 denotes the other services of the AIP. As shown, anumber of IDCs 400 and associated AIP 401, 404 may exist to provide adistributed system, which enhances service availability to the users andreduces user response times.

[0103] The ASP system 403 includes Web Servers (WS), Application Servers(AS), Communication Servers (CS), Transaction Servers (TS), and aStorage Area Network (SAN). These ASP systems 403 deliver service tocustomers 405 via any number of networks: the Internet 407, a PSTN 409,and a wireless network 411. In this example, the Internet 407 mayprovide Policy Servers (PS) and Redirect Servers (RS), indicated at 416.The Internet 407 is also linked to the PSTN 409 via a media gateway 420,and the PSTN is linked to the Wireless Network 411 via a wirelessgateway 422. As in the systems of FIGS. 3 and 4, a Voice Browser 410 isutilized.

[0104] The AIPs 401, 404 connect to a network 425 of the Proprietor insupport of a development and test environment encompassing a NetworkOperations Center (NOC) 413, a Proprietor legacy system (or resources)415, and an Integrated Application Support Architecture (IASA) 417. TheIASA 417 provides support for services provisioning, CPE/circuitinstallation, activation, event management, and billing to AIPs fortheir consumption of services. In an exemplary embodiment, the network425 may become part of the AIP 401 and used to support distributed AIPimplementations. The Proprietor Legacy Resources 415 may includeapplications that have been developed as well as those applications thatare in development; these applications may be utilized by the AIP 401and integrated into its the common services for use by the ASPs inserving their customers.

[0105] The development applications of the Proprietor may conversely usecommon services of the AIP 401. The AIP 404 shows an AIP Common ServicesEnvironment connected to a series of Web call centers 418 which areconnected to the Internet 407. The services of the Web call centers arealso integrated into the AIP common services and available for use bythe ASPs in serving their customers. The customers 405 have one or moreedge servers 402 serving terminals such as telephones of varying types406 and 408, and PCs or workstations 421. The wireless network 411serves varying types of terminals, such as the PDA 412 and the wirelessconnected laptop computer or terminal 414.

[0106] When integrated with the development and test environments of theProprietor, the AIP provides significant benefits with respect todevelopment, design, and production of new products and services. As anexample, the availability of the AIP, as an integral Proprietor entity,frees Proprietor resources for use to application specific developments.Such developments and associated resources may include end user devices,platforms, data storage, and development and execution environments,which are usable to field the AIP. The configuration facilitates theability to constantly develop new capabilities to be incrementallyincorporated into the AIP, thereby increasing the efficiency of ongoingresearch and development. In this manner, a project can use some of theAIP common services, rather than implement redundant capabilities. A newproject can also make its services available via the AIP, thus enablingother ongoing projects to use those services. This greatly leverages thecapabilities provided in ongoing new projects and minimizes redundancy.As the AIP of the Proprietor scales, the AIP becomes distributed.

[0107]FIG. 6A is a conceptual block diagram illustrating a DistributedAIP deployment configuration along with Proprietor systems, which may beassociated and used with the AIP. Although shown as a centralizedsystem, a development system (or environment) 501 may be distributed andlocated at several sites. Similarly, a Staging and Test Bed environment503 may be distributed, thereby providing such advantages as improvednetwork performance and system availability. The development system 501includes a Service Creation Environment (SCE) 505 and Service CreationManager (SCM) 507, along with a development Repository 509 forrespectively creating new services, managing the creation of suchservices, and providing a repository for the new services that arecreated. The Staging and Test Bed system 503 includes System Integrationor System Integrator (SI) 511, Network Integration 513, and Deployment515, all of which may be located at different sites. The Staging andTest Bed environment 503 may be used to integrate new applications ontosystems, stage them for scaled system network test, and finally preparethem for automatic software deployment to AIP sites.

[0108] As seen in FIG. 6A, each AIP 517 may be functionally divided intoa common services environment, and an ASP, ISV, XSP environment. Thecommon services environment includes those elements which are depictedabove a service or message bus 519, while the ASP, ISV, XSP environmentis below the service bus 519. The common services environment, and ASP,ISV, XSP environments share Content Management 521. Content Managementrefers to management of data feeds, such as news, weather, sports, stockquotes and other data that end-users would find desirable.

[0109] The common services environment includes a SIP system 541, an ASPand Customer billing system 543, a Service Management system 545, aProduct Catalog 547, an Enrollment and Subscription Management system549, and an XPM and Policy Management system 551. The ASPs which areincluded in the XSP environment include co-located ASPs 523 and hostedASPs 524, as well as ISVs 527. An external one or more ASP/ISVs 525 isconnected to the message bus 519, and may serve to make development,staging and test bed produced applications, and software available tothe AIP for inclusion in its available services.

[0110] The ASPs 523 and 524 and the ISVs 527 are connected through aUbiquitous Access system 529 to the ASP customers 531. The externalASP/ISV 525 provides services to the AIP 517 via bus 519 and itsconnections to the Development environment 501 and the Staging/Test Bedenvironment 503.

[0111] As the number of ASPs and the customer user load grow, additionalAIPs are deployed outward into existing ASP sites. Thus, one of thedistributed AIPs supports multiple ASPs/ISVs at an Internet Data Center(IDC), as illustrated in the functional area diagram of FIG. 5.According to one embodiment of the present invention, services may bemoved out to the edge of the network and closer to customers forimproved performance. As the network expands, the initially deployedcentralized sites may act as administration centers.

[0112] The service bus 519 provides communication among the variousdistributed instances of the AIP, as well as to link the distributed AIPto the Integrated Application Support Architecture (IASA) 533, whichhandles AIP/ASP provisioning 535, billing of AIPs 537, and InventoryManagement 539. Under this arrangement, the customers of the Proprietorcan own AIPs. The IASA 533 provides a inventory management 539 ofassets, network and security operations, and support to AIPs. Alsoassociated with the distributed AIP are the SOC 553, NOC 555, and CallCenter 557.

[0113] As seen in FIG. 6A, the AIP 517 may support multiple ASP/ISVs persite. The AIP 517 also provides localized ASP customer care needed forweb based enrollment of new customers, setting up of service packages,subscription support, localized event collection, billing, reporting,and localized customer support. Local Workflow Management and RulesEngines coordinate development of needed products to accomplish thesetasks. All of these activities are integrated onto a common message bus(EAI/MOM). External ASP/ISV services may be integrated along with localASP/ISV services into a common product catalog that may be used by newASPs to select their services for customization and resale to customers.

[0114] As previously noted, the AIP 317 includes a robust set ofservices and applications intended to provide a full featuredenvironment for the targeted customers, namely, ASPs. The AIP 317retains the same architectural structure, while omitting from thestructure those services and applications that are not needed to fulfillthe immediate AIP Infrastructure objective. The AIP 317 advantageouslyprovides a common service framework in which commercial applications canbe implemented and launched to demonstrate the ability to reducedevelopment cost, time to market, and maintenance costs while achievingtechnical goals for performance, scalability, and reliability.

[0115]FIG. 6B shows the architecture of the AIP, whereby the AIP housesservices by Independent Service Vendors (ISVs), according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. In this example, the architectureis largely similar to the system of FIG. 6A, with the exception that theAIPs 517 are without the ASPs 523, 524. Further, by contrast to thesystem of FIG. 6A, internal ASP/ISVs 559 are not within the AIPs 517,but instead are connected through the service bus 519. Accordingly, theAIPs 517 have the flexibility to provide application services from anynumber of sources.

[0116]FIG. 7 shows an AIP 601 that includes the Ubiquitous Access object603. As shown, the ubiquitous access object 603 includes a Transcoder605 which receives varied protocols from ASP Portals indicated at 607.These portals include a Web Portal, Wireless Portal, and Voice Portal.From these portals the Transcoder 605 receives the various mark uplanguage protocols, such as the HTML, HDML, WML, VXML, and XMLprotocols.

[0117] The transcoder 605 translates these protocols into protocols thatare readable by the various end user devices. The output of theTranscoder 605 is presented to the various networks via a series ofbrowsers 609, 611, 613, and 615, which respectively deliver HTTP, WAP,SIP/RTP, and SS7/TDM signals. The three uppermost browsers 609, 611, and613 handle signals for PCs and the like. In addition, these browsers609, 611, 613, and 615 handle the varied protocols which terminate inthe variety of larger or smaller displays offered in WAP devices rangingfrom PDAs to WAP phones. These outputs are delivered to the Internet617, Gateway 619, and Wireless Network 621. The Wireless Network 621links to various Wireless devices 623. The Voice Browser 615 deliversoutput via Switch 625 to the PSTN 627. The Internet 617 feeds a largenumber of Customers 629 through Firewalls 631 and VPNs 633. The VPNlinks to Work Stations 635 and VOIP phones 637 via access 639. The VPN633 is also connected to an Application Server 641. The Voice Browser615 and PSTN 627 are linked to POTS phones 645 via PBX 643.

[0118] Through a Service Bus 647, the AIP 601 provides common services648, which are similar to those previously discussed in connection withthe system of FIG. 4. The Bus 647 connects a WFM/RE 649, Profile andPolicy Management 651, Enrollment and Subscription 653, Billing 655, CRM657, and System and Network Management 659. LDAP and RDBM storages 661and 663 are also provided.

[0119] Referring to FIG. 8, the AIP is shown at 700, an ASP at 701, andthe AIP common services environment at 703. Proprietor environments thatare associated with the AIP are indicated at 705; these include thedevelopment and test bed environments are similar to those shown at 501and 503 in FIG. 6A. In the associated Proprietor environments 705 inFIG. 8 are included the Proprietor Legacy technology 709, the IASA 711,the NOC 713, the Development and Test Bed 717, and the Web BasedInteraction Center (WBIC) 715. While logical details of one ASP areshown at 701 in FIG. 8, it is shown at 707 that virtually any number ofASPs may be readily accommodated, indicative of the high scalabilitysupported by the AIP.

[0120] In the common services environment 703 are shown the WFM/RMsystems 721, the Profile and Policy Management systems 723, DirectoryServices 725, Intrusion Detection System (IDS) 727, SLA Management 729,the Financial Exact Server 731, Services Management 733, the AIP servicecatalog 735, ASP/Customer billing 736, Event Management 737, Reporting739, Content Management 741, System and Network Management 743, VPN 745,and External Services Adapter 747.

[0121] Event Management 737 includes login/logoff, start/stop, timebased, resource based, exception based and other similar kinds of eventprocessing. Event management 737 drives the following systems: billing736, security 727, and SLA management 729. The adapter 747 is atranslator that is used in the AIP architecture to couple twocommunicating software components that do not naturally use the sameprotocols; the adapter 747, for example, may transform onerepresentation of a business function into another. These components areall connected by the SAN 748 to the associated databases that servethem. These databases are indicated collectively at 749 with a backup751.

[0122] Service Bus 753 is connected via a firewall 755 to the StorageArea Network 757. This network 757 has attached thereto the CorporateData Storages here represented by storages 759 and 761. Also tied to theStorage Area Network 757 (for example, from its own VLAN) are theContent Server 763, Application Servers 767, UM Mail Servers 769,Transaction Server 771, and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) 773. Theseservers 765, 767, 769, 771, and 773 communicate with the Trusted Net775, which is connected through firewall 777 to the DMZ Net 779.

[0123] The Portal Servers 765, Application Servers 767, and UM MailServers 769 are connected to the Edge Server 781. The Edge Server 781includes the Security Proxy 783, Web Proxy/Cache 785, Streaming Server789, UA/VB 791, a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) 793, VPN 795, and WAPGateway 797. The MTA 793 transfers email from a mail server to a mailclient. These elements 783, 785, 789, 791, 793, 795, and 797 areconnected to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Net 779. Also connected to theDMZ Net 779 are the Load Balancers 799 and a plurality of Web Servers1100.

[0124] If an ASP customer of the AIP has web servers available, asindicated in this diagram, the customer may choose to use those webservers. Alternatively, the AIP may house these web servers and offerweb hosting services. That is, web servers used by ASPs may either betheir own web servers, which are physically located at the ASP site, ormay be web servers of the AIP at an AIP site. The same flexibilityextends to the Edge Servers, as well as all of the other components thatan ASP customer of the AIP may require. Accordingly, a customer ASP mayelect to simply receive services of the AIP without the cost ofacquiring and maintaining hardware or software. Although FIG. 8 shows acomponent in a block representing an ASP, the component need notnecessarily be located at an ASP site, or at a centralized AIP site.

[0125] The AIP 700 provides reusable infrastructure components to ASPSites. These components may include Web Servers, Application Servers,Content Servers, Transaction Servers, and Corporate Data Storage. TheAIP 700 also provides infrastructure components to Customer Sites. Thesecomponents may include Edge Servers, and Network Elements such as VoiceBrowser and SIP PS/RS. As previously stated, it is a feature of thepresent invention that the AIP 700 as well as the Proprietor environmentmay be distributed.

[0126] The DMZ Net 779 is connected via a firewall 798 to the Internet796, PSTN 794, and Wireless Network 792. Each of the Internet 796, PSTN794, and Wireless Network 792 are connected to Corporate SIP AccessSystems 790. The PSTN 794 feeds various telephone terminals 788, whilethe Internet 796 feeds PC and Work Station Terminals indicated at 786.The Wireless Network 792 feeds various wireless terminals 784.

[0127] The deployment shown in FIG. 8 supports, in an exemplaryembodiment, three zones of security: DMZ (demilitarized zone) Net 779,Trusted Zone Net 775, and AIP Common Service Zone (also referred to as“High Security Zone”) 703. That is, the architecture supports arefirewalls, which prevent the unauthorized access of AIP platforms fromthe public Internet 796. The DMZ (demilitarized zone) Net 779 is theentry point from the Internet 796, following the firewall 798. The DMZNet 779 provides the initial level of protection to multiple corporateaccess points; that is, each corporation can have its own dedicatedaccess components (e.g., edge server and web servers). This zone is alsothe lowest level of availability, usually relying upon clustermanagement instead of high availability solutions.

[0128] The Trusted Zone Net 775 is the behind the DMZ 779 and provides asecond level of security to the applications that are accessed throughthe DMZ's access servers. A different type of firewall than that of thefirewall 798 is employed to deter hacking through to the applicationsand their data. Corporate data is also stored in this zone, which runsat a higher level of availability, relying upon N+1 sparing ofapplication servers, capacity on demand to support instantaneous loads,fail-over thread control for redundant container management in software,and backup of customer data.

[0129] The AIP Common Service Zone 703 is protected by a third firewall755. Within the AIP 700 are common services that are supplied to ASPsand common data that is important to the operation of the AIP/ASPs. Thiszone 703 provides the highest level of availability relying uponcapacity on demand resource pooling for adding ASPs, and highavailability configurations with in site warm backup databases anddisaster recovery across sites.

[0130] With respect to Infrastructure, the following systems aresupported: EAI/MOM, Work Flow Manager, Adapters, API/Interfaces, LDAP,Hierarchy, Firewalls, DMZ, NAT, Web Cache and Proxy, Load Balancer, WebServer, VPN, Policy Manager, SLA Management, Authentication,Authorization and Accounting (AAA), Profile Manager, AllocatedAdministration, Enrollment, Subscription, Customization, Event Manager,Provisioning, flat rate or usage Billing, Operation Support, SystemManagement, Network Management, Corporate Portal Adapter,Personalization, SIP Servers, CPE Access, e-Mail, Voice Mail, Paging,Fax, Personal Address Book, NAS/SAN, Calendar, Corporate Directory,Telco Directory, Application Manager, Thin Client, Fat Client, NAS,eCommerce Configurator, Development Environment, Execution Environment,and SIP Integration.

[0131] The Products include Corporate (B2E) web Portal “white box”(i.e., a generic or non-branded construct) customizable application andcontent management. Also SIP communications integration is provided forCustomer Premise Equipment at customer sites and network SIP Serversneeded to route and gateway calls to and from a PSTN. Unified Messagingproducts include SIP based voice mail, email, page, fax, and personaland corporate address books out of a common web accessible mailbox andnetwork message store. Directory Services of national Telephony andCorporate Directories are supported. The products also includeUbiquitous access and voice portal front end to UM, Personal Portal withlocal content services and personal linkages, and initial B2B Portalwith aggregate AIP/ASP/ISV product catalog for reselling services.

[0132] Further Applications on Demand (AOD) are provided and includeBusiness Applications, such as HR and finance, and PersonalApplications, such as MICROSOFT OFFICE. Applications on Demand (AoD) areapplications that are subscribed to and paid for on an as-use basis bythe corporate user. Typically these applications include personalproductivity (e.g., MS Office), professional applications (e.g.,analysis, design, development, simulation, test), and somegeneral-purpose business applications (e.g., Procurement Order,Tracking/Status, T&E, etc.). An Application on Demand server is the hostfrom which the application is served. In a thin client application, theend user has a display component on their workstation while the bulk ofthe application runs on the server. In a thick client instance, theapplication is copied from this server to the client workstation and runon the workstation.

[0133] Other products encompass Host Management Services to supportrapid service creation, deployment, and support of ASP/ISV applications;advanced B2B Portal with Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) supply chainapplications; more AOD (Customer Resource Mgmt, Enterprise ResourcePlanning, Dev Env); advanced security (Intrusion Detection System,Public Key Infrastructure, Anti Virus, Security Operations Center);Network Operations Center (SIP integrated), and ASP CustomerProvisioning, Support, and Billing at distributed AIP. EnterpriseResource Planning (ERP) refers to a broad set of activities supported bymulti-module application software that helps a manufacturer or otherbusiness manage the important parts of its business, including productplanning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting withsuppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders. ERP can alsoinclude application modules for the finance and human resources aspectsof a business.

[0134] Additionally, technology enablers, such as Plug and Play, Best inClass, Re-use, and Adaptive technologies are supported. The adaptivetechnologies include the following: self-configuring networks usingclient and service registration with dynamic brokering; roaming-usinggeographic user re-registration and profile fragment following;presence-using user registered, on-line, and available indicators; andlocation-using devices, Global Positioning System (GPS), limited rangeRadio Frequency (RF), or Infrared wireless connection to IP (InternetProtocol) appliances or wireless LANs, such as BLUETOOTH and IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11b.

[0135] Further, the AIP 700 provides reusable infrastructure componentsto Customer Sites (Edge Server), Network Elements (Voice Browser, SIPPS/RS), and ASPs (Web Servers, Application Servers, Content Servers,Transaction Servers, Corporate Data Storage). As noted earlier, underthis approach, the ASP functionality, which is highly cohesive, may betightly coupled to common services, which are themselves highlycohesive.

[0136]FIGS. 9A and 9B show diagrammatic illustrations of security,cohesion, and coupling enabled by the AIP. FIG. 9A shows a deploymentscalability with numerous ASPs 803 servicing multiple CorporateCustomers 801 at several sites supported with one centralized AIP 805.For purposes of explanation, the APSs 803 serve corporate customers thatnumber in the hundreds.

[0137] Alternatively, the AIP deployment may be distributed, as shown inFIG. 9B. In this example, the AIP may scale to serve a largemetropolitan configuration, with multiple AIPs 915 servicing many ASPs917. In turn, the ASPs 917 offer services to many different types ofclients of varying sizes: small customers 921, medium customers 923, andlarge customers 925. The AIPs 915 share a distributed environment ofIASA 901, NOC 903, SOC 905, and WBIC 907 in support of 100 ASPs 917. Inan exemplary embodiment, the ASPs 917 may thus support over a thousandCorporate Customers 919 per ASP, with 100,000 users per ASP.

[0138] As seen from FIG. 9B, the user community per AIP can growsignificantly for large metropolitan areas. The AIP deployments canprovide both horizontal and vertical hardware scalability, in additionto software scalability. Horizontal scalability refers to addingcomponents, such as servers, to add system capacity. This approach ofscalability may be used on a web site front end. In addition, horizontalscalable processors, which are fixed and low cost, may be managed asclusters with front end load balancers. If a horizontally scalableprocessor fails, the load balancer detects the failure condition andsends the next service request to the next available processor until thefailed processor is replaced. Vertical scalability refers to utilizingbigger/faster servers, and translates to a multi-way symmetricmulti-processing (SMP) configuration. Each customer has a dedicated poolof SMP processors, volatile memory (RAM), Input/Output, and Storage. Acommon pool of resources is provided for growth, either instantaneous orlong term. Both types of resource growth can be supported by capacity ondemand.

[0139] With respect to software scalability, modern developmenttechnology supports dynamic management of applications through, forexample, Java Server Pages (JSP) and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB). Thesetechnologies use container-managed persistence to create, run, anddestroy application beans, dynamically freeing up resources for otherapplications. Thus, applications run upon demand, and do not overconsume resources, as for example a servlet does. Servlets typicallyonly support one service per processor, whereas EJBs can supportmultiple dynamic application beans. According to one embodiment of theinvention, software components use EJB container managed persistenceservice beans. This lower level of granularity allows function levelbeans to be built, executed and used by multiple applications.

[0140] Java provides several attractive features in the web serverenvironment. Perhaps the most valuable is its interpreted nature: with aJava enabled browser web pages containing Java applets can be animatedand reasonably be expected to behave the same on virtually everyplatform, operating system and browser combination. The key to this isthe development of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). JVMs are availablefor nearly every O/S and browser combination. While Java also supportsservlets, which are executed on the web server system as opposed toapplets which execute on the web browser system, the breakthroughtechnology is the evolution of the Enterprise Java Bean (EJB). WithEJBs, web pages (actually implemented in downloaded HTML) can displayresults that are obtained through the invocation of EJBs which resideand execute on service platforms in the web server environment. Byrunning the EJB on a separate server, both the web browser and webserver systems are not burdened with supporting the computationalactivity delivered by the EJB and are able to serve and display webpages without any significant performance degradation. Further, as theEJB does not need to run on any web browser that displays the web pagereferencing the EJB, the EJB can be compiled into native instructionsfor the server on which it runs and need not be interpreted in a JVM.And this yields an EJB that demands fewer resources than would itsinterpretive counterpart. Finally, as Java is standards based, there area growing body of tools and facilities based on the Java standards thatwill extend the capabilities of services implemented following the Javastandards.

[0141] The availability of VPNs enables an AIP to receive, store anddeliver data in exchanges with ASPs, and through corporate portalsacross the public Internet in privacy and with the assurance that thedata retains its integrity. VPNs also provide the ability to restrictthe access to the VPN to specific severs and services. These featuresenable the AIP to be able to offer its services through a wide array ofASPs and be assured that the data exchanges will be only from and to theintended party.

[0142]FIG. 10 shows a top (or high level) model of the processing pathfrom Corporate Customer to Legacy systems. The prefix (cc) indicatesclass category and is used to distinguish a class category from a class(overloading). Each class category is classified into its components inthe following description. The dashed line between packages or blocksindicates a dependency (class category A uses class category B). The toplevel is a processing chain from multiple Corporation Customers 1001 perASP through a network 1003 to multiple ASPs 1005 per AIP 1007. TheCorporate Customer 1001 can have edge servers 1004 to support multimediaor to add an intranet corporate page (i.e., a corporate portal); such ascenario is reflective of larger corporations that have intranets. Ifthe corporation is too small to maintain an intranet, then the edgeserver may be within the ASP site. The ASP 1005 is a commercial venturethat sells (or rent) applications to many corporations 1001. The AIP1007 provides an extensive set of common services to the ASPs 1005 thatthey cannot afford to provide themselves. The components 1001-1907 aremore fully described below with respect to FIGS. 11, 12, 14, and 15.

[0143] IASA 1011 is connected to the AIP by a carrier network 1013 andis connected to the Proprietor Legacy Technology 1015. IASA supportssuch services as SIP and WBGS or UDS. WBIC 1017 provides web supportcenter capabilities to ASPs 1005 and customers 1001. NOC 1019 supportsthe network and DE/TB 1021 supports development, testing, andintegration of new services.

[0144]FIG. 11 shows a corporate customer model, which is a logicalobject oriented depiction of typical corporate customer infrastructurerelationships. A Corporate Customer may be a Small to Medium Enterprise(SME) or Large Enterprise that seeks to outsource services to avoidproduct life-cycle costs and to reduce its own information technologyorganization costs. Accordingly, referring to the actor hierarchy at theleft side of the figure, the Customer 1100 is a generic entity. TheCustomer could be a Tester 1101, User 1103, Administrator 1105, Worker1107, or Developer 1109. Further, the User 1103 could be a Tester 1101,User 1103, Administrator 1105, Worker 1107, or Developer 1109. The User1103 may access the customer infrastructure via a PC 1111, SIP Phone1113, Wireless device 1115, POTS phone 1117. The phone 1117 is linked toa PBX 1119 connected to a PSTN link 1121 via a demarcation interface1123. The customer is linked to the serving ASP/AIP via the AIP EdgeServer 1125, VPN client 1127, and Intranet 1129.

[0145] Corporate Security 1131 is enabled by a Secure Server 1133,Intrusion Detection System (IDS) 1135, and Border Router/Firewall(BR/FW) 1137. The Human Resources Database (HR DB) 1139 is utilized inuser sign-on. As stated, the User 1103 accesses the infrastructureservices via various types of terminals, here shown as PCs 1111, SIPphones 1113, Wireless devices 1115 linked to the wireless LAN 1141, andPOTS phones 1117 linked to the PBX 1119 and Demarcation interface 1123.A Corporate Application Server 1143 is available via the Intranet 1129.As previously described in connection with FIGS. 6 and 7, FIG. 11 is alogical diagram wherein the presence of a component signifies its use,but does not necessarily indicate its physical presence. Thus, the EdgeServer 1125, HR Database 1139, Corporate Application Server 1143, andSecurity components 1131, 1133, 1135, and 1137, while shown here inCustomer Infrastructure, are found in the combined AIP/ASP environments,such as shown in FIG. 8, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

[0146] In this scenario, Corporate Customers are renting the followingservices: Corporate Portal, Unified Messaging, Applications on Demand,Directory Services, ubiquitous access to applications, networkapplication storage/backup/recovery, and security. These portals,applications, and services are branded in their own corporation brandand appear to users to be local. This is accomplished using an EdgeServer that acts as a local server and redirects the portal,application, and service requests to the ASP (or ASPs) providing them.The ASP provides bills to the Corporation broken down by department andservices used.

[0147] As seen in the Corporate Customer model shown in FIG. 11, in thelower left portion thereof, that a significant usage of the system ofthe present invention involves voice traffic. Thus, FIG. 11 shows theCorporate Customer infrastructure utilizing POTS phones 1117, SIP phones1113, and Wireless devices 1115.

[0148] Reference is now made to FIG. 12, which is a logical objectoriented diagram showing a network model for handling voice callsoriginating with the Corporate Customer. The network comprises theInternet, the PSTN, and Wireless. SIP servers (at least locationservers) are also considered to be network elements. These include userdevice registration (Registrar) as part of the Redirect Server, whichindicates to the Proxy Server where a user currently is located.

[0149]FIG. 12 shows a Corporate Customer site 1201 containing a BR/FW1203. The BR/FW 1203 links the Customer 1201 to the network componentsshown at 1205. An edge server 1207 has a BR/FW 1209, which links it tothe Internet 1211, and a voice browser (VB) 1213. The browser 1213provides voice menus with Speech to Text (STT) and Text to Speech (TTS)conversion.

[0150] The site 1201 can support POTS calls as well as VoIP calls. POTSphone voice calls are processed first by a customer Demarcationinterface 1215, and then at the POP 1217 to the PSTN 1219. A VoiceBrowser 1213 connects to a switch (SW) 1221, which attaches to PSTN1219. PSTN Points of Presence (POPS), in an exemplary embodiment, aredigital access points for the Internet. VoIP calls are handled using theRegistrar 1223, the Redirect Server 1225, SIP 1227, the Internet 1211,and the Media Gateway 1231. VoIP calls also may travel the Media Gateway1231, Switch 1221, PSTN 1219, and POP 1217. The Redirect Server 1225locates users in the appropriate storages, while the Proxy Server 1229establishes their authorization. The Registrar 1223, SIP 1227, RedirectServer 1225, and Proxy Server 1229 determine the routing of a SIP call.The Proxy Server 1229 is tied to the Domain Name Service (DNS) andtranslates URLs to corresponding IP Addresses.

[0151]FIG. 13 provides a depiction of Proprietor Voice PortalArchitecture for enabling voice browsing in AIP operation. Under oneoperational scenario, a POTS phone 1301 originates an 8xx (or toll free)call to gain access to the network. The call may seek data orinformation, such as Stock and News content 1302, or other Content 1303,which is provided by a customer (e.g., vendors 1305 and 1307) of aProprietor AIP.

[0152] The Vendor 1305 returns voice responses, while the Vendor 1307returns e-commerce responses, such as to a PDA or the like terminal.While the Vendors 1305 and 1307 operate the service for making theinformation available, the involved hardware, software, and service maybe provided by the AIP. The call originating at the telephone 1301passes via the LEC 1309 to the AIP network 1311. From the Proprietornetwork 1311 the call is directed to a Switch 1313 or 1315, and then toVoice Portal Recognition Clients 1317.

[0153] The voice recognition clients work with Voice Recognition Servers1319 and Voice Portal Browsers 1321. The voice signal is converted intotext, which may represent voice requests or commands. The command, whichoriginates from an identified source or user, is next sent via the AIPInternal Data Network 1323 to Voice Portal LDAP servers 1325 and toVoice Portal Application Servers 1331. The LDAP servers 1325 access theCustomer Data storage 1327 and Administration and Access Database 1329.Also, the LDAP servers 1325, in conjunction with the Application Servers1331, determine whether the requesting party is entitled to the serviceor information requested. After ascertaining that the requester isentitled to have the request filled, the information is transmitted backthrough the Voice Recognition Servers, Clients, and Browsers 1319, 1317,and 1321. The requested information is then converted into speech and isdelivered over the phone 1301. Information regarding the transaction isreported by the Vendor 1305, 1307 via the Internet 1333 through Firewall1335 to the AIP Billing Systems 1337.

[0154] The Billing Systems 1337 prepare Internal Reports 1339 andcommunicate with a Terminal 1341 for setting up Accounts. The PC orWorkstation 1345 may be used to obtain Web Access for ProfilePersonalization. It is recognized that an authorized user may accessinformation over the phone or a PC (or Work Station) 1345 over theInternet 1333. The PC 1345 provides a means for establishing such accessthrough the Internet 1333, Firewall 1349, and AIP Internal Data Network1323.

[0155]FIG. 14 is a diagram of an edge server service environment,according to an embodiment of the present invention. An AIP Edge Serverenvironment 1401 provides common access mechanisms for multiple ASPs.For small sites, the environment 1401 may be shared among such sites;however, for large ASPs, a dedicated environment 1401 may be employed.The AIP Edge Server environment 1401 moves performance sensitiveservices closer to the end customer, in which the higher the correlationof load to performance, the more likely edge servers can improveperformance.

[0156] The Edge Server environment 1401 communicates with a Web Proxy1403 from an ASP and has connectivity to the Internet 1405. The EdgeServer environment 1401 establishes the forward boundary of the DMZ(Demilitarized Zone), in form of a DMZ network (Net) 1407.

[0157] As shown, the Edge Server environment 1401 also includes aProprietor Edge Server 1409, and the Edge Server Security 1411. The EdgeServer Security 1411 interacts with an Intrusion Detection System 1415,a Border Router/Firewall 1417, and a Secure Server 1413. The Edge Server1409 provides the services of ubiquitous access 1419, Global LoadBalancing 1421, WAP Gateway 1423, MTA 1425, and Streaming Server 1427.The DMZ Net 1407 also supports SIP/RTP messages from a Voice Browser(VB) 1429, which communicates with a Switch 1431.

[0158]FIG. 15 is a logical diagram showing an exemplary ASP providingAIP services to a customer site. An ASP 1501 has a VPN Server 1529, EdgeServer 1531, and the DMZ network 1506 (whether incorporated within theASP or supported through an Edge Server), serving as a front end to thecustomer site 1505. The DMZ network 1506 provides a firewall protectedLAN segment to which various ISP components are connected, including aWeb Cache 1507, a Load Balancer 1509, a NAT 1510, a Web Server 1511, aSecurity Agent 1513, and an ASP Firewall 1515. The Web Server 1511includes a security agent 1513 that sends initial unauthorized access tothe Security Server for authentication. Initial access authorizationmight require accessing the policy manager (part of the AIP). TheApplications are protected by an ASP firewall 1515 between the DMZ 1506and Trusted Net 1508 LAN segments, thus imposing at least two firewallsbefore reaching the applications and application content/data.

[0159] The ASP backend includes an IDS 1524, a Portal Server 1527, andan Application Server Environment 1517 (e.g., ASP/JSP and Servlet/EJBcontainers and service beans). Dynamic pages are generated from functionselections at the web server and are passed on to the ASP/JSP for pagegeneration. Content may come from Portal links to Content Servers 1519or Application links to data. Transaction Servers 1521 supportapplications that require transaction operations on data. Data 1525 isstored on securely Storage Area Network 1523 partitions by thecorporation.

[0160]FIG. 16 shows an AIP Services Model, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. While the customer ASPs may select from amongnumerous services in the AIP product catalog, the core services supportthe optional services and are included in the basic services offered tothe ASPs. As shown, an AIP 1601 utilizes a Service Bus 1603 to providethese core services, which are delivered to the ASP 1604 Trusted Net1602. The AIP is supported by DE/TB 1606, WBIC 1608, NOC 1610, and IASA16012, via Intranet 1614 and a carrier network 1616.

[0161] The core service elements include MOM 1605, WFM 1607, RE 1609,EAI 1611, Profile Manager 1613, Join Engine 1623 and Meta Directory1625, AIP Directory 1615, Policy Manager 1617, AIP Service Catalog 1619,ASP Billing 1621, AIP Reporting 1627, Content Management 1629, and SLAManagement 1631. Profile Manager 1613, Join Engine 1623 and MetaDirectory 1625, AIP Directory 1615, Policy Manager (xPM) 1617, AIPService Catalog 1619, ASP Billing 1621, AIP Reporting 1627, ContentManagement 1629, and SLA Management 1631 are controlled by ServiceManagement 1633.

[0162] The AIP Service Catalog 1619 aggregates applications and servicesfrom multiple sources into bundles that may be subscribed to by theirASPs and delivered to the ASP's customers. The aggregate product catalogenables service providers to leverage more customers by wholesaling orleasing to other service providers than they can address on their own.The Profile Manager 1613 provides generic user, service, device, andsecurity profiles populated to customer hierarchies, service packages,device characteristics, and security characteristics. These profiles maybe stored in an LDAP directory and may be populated by using a MetaDirectory and Join Engine to pull in corporate data. The Policy Manager1617 provides rules for managing access control, quality of servicedelivery based on SLA, service/device dependencies, and presencemanagement. Policy Management is often combined with profile managementthat is provided by the Profile Manger 1613. Service Management 1633controls many aspects of service creation, usage and reporting.

[0163] The Billing system 1621 generates invoices for aggregation ofapplications and services to a customer, an ASP, or an AIP, dependingupon how the invoices are to be delivered. By way of example, the IASAbills an AIP for services delivered. The AIP may process the bill foritself, its ASPs, and its ASP's customers based on accounts. SLAManagement: SLA Management 1631 provides for comparison of applicationor network events that affect delivery of applications and services tocustomers based on SLA criteria and the adjustment of billing based onout-of-availability conditions with or without human intervention. Thisis a specialized instance of the more generalized Policy Manager 1617.

[0164] The AIP Reporting system 1627 provides AIP aggregated event,financial, support statistics, and detailed reports via the web orelectronic delivery to customers, ASPs, AIPs, support centers (NOC, SOC,WBIC), and IASA. Standard and customized reports may be made availableand result in additional revenue to the AIP. Report sources are EventManagement, SLA Management, Billing, Application/System/ NetworkManagement, and CRM/ERP.

[0165] Content Management 1629 provides for authoring, collecting,packaging, configuration managing, deployment, recovery, and serving ofdifferent types of content used by corporations and service providers totheir customers. Content Management 1629 is may be implemented asstandalone COTS integrated with profile and policy management.

[0166] In addition, other core services include Event Manager 1635,which is linked to SLA Management 1631, Quality of Service Manager 1637and Network Management 1639, which is linked to Quality of ServiceManagement 1637, and System Management 1641. Event Management 1635provides the capability to instrument applications, collect events,classify events, filter/sort/aggregate events, and deliver alarms,statistics, and details to the appropriate consumer of events. Eventdriven systems, of which AIP is a prime example, use MOM 1605 to deliverevents. Also, along with WFM 1607 and RE 1609, Event Management 1635creates products and routes them to the correct consumers as the resultof events. In general, events can be triggered by applications, systems,and network elements, like error conditions, alarms, heartbeats,performance counter statistics, and billable events.

[0167] The Environment Management 1643 providesApplication/System/Network Management tools, which use events todetermine their health and availability. In addition, events may be usedto determine the health and availability of applications. These eventsmay be captured in log files or MIBs or by other instrumentation (e.g.,SNMP or JMX agents). Events are usually stored for particular amounts oftime and then archived and overwritten, as in circular log files. Inaddition, these events may be filtered and correlated at the network andsystem level to determine significance.

[0168] The Event Manager 1635, the Quality of Service Manager 1637,Network Management 1639, and System Management 1641 are controlled byEnvironment Management 1643. Further, other core services of the AIP areas follows: Adapter Services 1645, Directory Service 1647, AIP Firewall1649, IDS 1651, Application Server 1653, CRM 1655(which controls theApplication Server 1653), and VPN Server 1657. This entire array ofcommon core services may be made available to all ASP, ISV, and XSPcustomers of the AIP, in addition to the optional services elected byindividual customers.

[0169] The AIP 1601 includes many common services that are used by theASPs within the same site. The core of the AIP 1601 is the EAI 1611 thatincludes a MOM 1605, WFM 1607 and RE 1609 that control (business)process execution. Service Management 1633 supplies many common servicesthat are involved in service delivery. For instance, when the ProfileManager 1613 creates and imports a new corporation hierarchy, the datathat is needed by any other service is propagated to those services viapub/sub channels on the MOM 1605. Policy Manager 1617 interprets theservice delivery means (UA) and the associated security that is neededto satisfy a security request.

[0170] The AIP 1601 has a service catalog 1619 that aggregates internaland external services (and rate/revenue sharing plans) that can beresold by any ASP within its domain. Billing 1621 supports collection ofbillable events, aggregating, rating, taxing and invoice line itempreparation for the ASP to bill their customers. Reporting 1627 supportsrevenue, usage, statistics and problem summarization and detail reportsfor ASPs, their customer and external service providers (e.g., ISVs).Content Management 1629 builds the content that the ASP content serversuse. SLA Management 1631 uses application/system/network events todetermine service availability and delivery compliance. SLA Management1631 feeds automatic bill corrections upon exception.

[0171] Environment Management 1643 provides a set of services that areneeded to manage the AIP/ASP environments. Event Management 1635collects and classifies event data, and makes the data available to anASP billing system 1621 and an ASP reporting system 1627. QoS Management1637 manages bandwidth, content and priorities in accordance with SLAagreements (as a type of network management). Network Management 1639monitors, controls network resources and provides events to the SLAManagement 1631 and reporting. System Management 1627 monitors, controlssystem resources, and provides events to SLA Management and Reporting1631.

[0172] Micro Services are services that are delivered through ASPs totheir customers, and include Directory Services (Global and Corporate),which may be expanded to include localized directory resources (e.g.,closes venue). The AIP 1601 may also include applications that can beused by ASPs and their customers; such applications include CRM 1655(uses Event Management and Revenue reporting data to show effectivenessof service revenue by ASP/Customer).

[0173] VPN 1657 is used to protect Adapter 1645 connections via networkfacilities 1646, 1648 to other global support systems (e.g., IASA 1650,NOC 1652, WBIC 1654, DE/TB 1656).

[0174] AIP Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) 1611 supportsautomation and integration mechanisms for the following: MessageOriented Middleware (MOM) 1605, Work Flow Management (WFM) 1607, andRules Engine (RE) 1609. The MOM 1605 provides publish and subscribe,point-to-point, and guaranteed delivery messaging. The WFM 1607automates business processes, both with manual decision intervention andwith rules engine to automate decisions based onevents/conditions/actions, including those supported by the AIP CommonServices. The Rules Engine (RE) 1609 provides automation of businessrules that direct business processes either to manned decisions orautomated (event, condition, action) decisions.

[0175]FIG. 17 is a diagram of a service management system employed in anAIP environment, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Inan exemplary embodiment, a Web Page listing the AIP services is providedby an ASP service delivery system 1723. AIP common services are managedby a Service Management system 1701, which in an exemplary embodiment,supports administration functions at a number of levels: AIPAdministration, ASP Administration, and customer (e.g., Corporate)Administration. The Service Management system 1701 controls the entry ofnew services through a Service Creation component 1703. The ServiceManagement system 1701 also regulates users into the system,establishing appropriate profiles outlining their authorized activities;these functions are provided by an Enrollment component 1705 and aService Subscription component 1707.

[0176] The Services Management system 1701 may access, via MOM 1713,services and data that are provided by the Join Engine 1715, the MetaDirectory 1717, Profile and Policy Management 1719, and the AIP/ASPCustomer Directory 1721. The Join Engine 1715 is also connected to theInternet 1711, so that the information which it obtains from the MetaDirectory 1717, Profile and Policy Management 1719, and the AIP/ASPCustomer Directory 1721 are also available via that medium and any VPNsand secure links that the AIP may establish via the Internet 1711. Thisarrangement permits the Join Engine 1715 and Meta Directory 1717 toperform their conventional functions to access and correlate data.

[0177] A customer site may include a Human Resources (HR) database 1709that is accessible over the Internet 1711. Accordingly, data may beobtained from the HR database 1709 and the AIP/ASP Customer Directory1721. Enrolling customers are entered into the AIP/ASP CustomerDirectory 1721, and customers or users who are signing on are checkedagainst that data as well as the appropriate profiles and policymanagement information via the Join Engine 1715 and the Meta Directory1717. Users subscribe and customize a profile via the ServiceSubscription component 1707 and the Profile and Policy Management system1719. The services selected may combine services from other ASPs,including external ASPs and Development ASPs, such as the ASP 525previously described in connection with FIG. 6. The subscribed ASPservices 1723 may be delivered via the bus 1713 and Internet 1711.

[0178]FIG. 18 is a diagram showing the relationship of an IntegratedApplications Support Architecture (IASA) with the Proprietor, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. A pre-AIP model deliversProprietor global services to Proprietor customers, while an AIPgeneration model delivers any service, Proprietor or external serviceprovider (generically referred to as an ASP), to any service provider'scustomer. The AIP model may be referred to as an ASP delivery model.Both models exist within the Proprietor, but there may be an evolutionfrom the first to the second over time.

[0179] The IASA 1819 supports provisioning, billing, and SLA Managementof the Proprietor global services in legacy systems, e.g., for circuitor customer premise equipment (CPE). Proprietor global services are anyservice provided by internal products and services, which are soldand/or supported directly to or by Proprietor.

[0180] Referring to FIG. 18, AIP 1801, in an exemplary embodiment,represents the entire logical AIP, which may exist in distributedphysical locations. ASP 1803, ASP customers 1805, and ISV 1807 arelinked to the AIP 1801 via Extranet 1811 and Common Access 1809. Asdiscussed, the AIP 1801 provides service registration, aggregation andbrokering capabilities to other products and services of the Proprietor1813 and hosted ASPs 1803, as well as common service managementcapabilities. Such services may be supplied to Proprietor Customers 1815via Private or Extranet 1817. The AIP 1801 supports resale of anycataloged or registered service to any other service provider for resaleto any customer. AIP 1801 is linked to IASA 1819 via Intranet 1821,which also links AIP 1801 to Proprietor 1813. IASA 1819 in turn islinked to Proprietor Enterprise Legacy system 1826 via Intranet 1823.

[0181] External customers may communicate with the AIP 1801 via theInternet 1821 over various carriers, for example, through VPN tunnels toensure customer service delivery privacy. That is, the external serviceproviders employ VPN tunnels, which connect them to the serviceaggregation capabilities of the AIP 1801. The AIP 1801 supportscommunications to internal projects (e.g., SIP, IASA, Web Center) overthe Proprietor's own secure high-speed backbone—i.e., the Intranet 1821.IASA 1819 communicates to legacy systems 1826 via an internal network(or Intranet) 1823.

[0182] When a new ASP 1813 is moved onto the AIP 1801, their servicesare registered into a service directory or catalog for resale to otherASPs 1803 and their customers 1805. This allows any ASP 1803, 1813 toleverage any service that is available for resale by customizingbranding, billing plans, SLAs (etc) and presentation via an AIP supportinfrastructure to the selling ASP's customer specific portals. If theASP 1803 resells a registered or cataloged service, then the revenue isshared (based upon the reseller's agreement) among the original serviceprovider (GDP, ASP or ISV) 1813, the AIP 1801, and the selling ASP 1803.

[0183] The IASA also supports provisioning, billing and SLA Managementof global services whereas the AIP supports these services for localASPs. Global services run in the network as network elements and are notlocalized to AIP/ASP but can be subscribed to by customers through anAIP/ASP. A shared revenue scenario or model is presently described indetail. Therefore AIP 1801, SIP 1827, and WBIC 1825 interface with IASA1819 to provision, bill and manage global services. SIP 1827 and WBIC1825 interface with IASA via Intranet 1831. IASA 1819 in turn interfaceswith Legacy systems 1826 to provision circuits and CPE.

[0184]FIG. 19 is an event diagram of a Global Service Shared RevenueScenario, showing the interaction among a customer 1901, an ASP 1903, anAIP 1905, and a Proprietor 1909. In step 1, an ASP 1903 signs on a newCorporate Customer 1901. To accomplish this, the AIP Administrator 1905creates a new corporate hierarchy in the Profile Management system. Thishierarchy is shared with the IASA (over a network 1907 of the Proprietor1909) to have commonality and to get a Legacy Corporation (Proprietor)ID for the Corporation (if it exists). In step 2, when usage occurs,usage events are generated in the network (e.g., from routers which areinstrumented) and reported back to IASA. The IASA aggregates theseevents, rates them based on pricing/billing plans with the corporatecustomers.

[0185] The invoice, as in step 3, is sent to the AIP 1905, where theinvoice items for each service used by an ASP 1903 are aggregated intoan ASP's bill. The AIP 1905 adds revenue sharing percentage (and/or flatrate) to the total per service charges being passed on to the ASP 1903(I.ASP+RS(AIP)). The ASP 1903 adds their revenue sharing percentage andprepares a combined invoice for the customer listing many of the chargesfor services consumed (I.Cust+RS(AIP+ASP)); this is performed by the AIP1905. In step 4, the customer receives the invoice and determinescharges aggregations at divisions and department levels. Detailedreports may be made available at an ASP URL (as supported by the AIP1905). In step 5, the Corporate Customer 1901 pays the Proprietor 1907(e.g., funds transfer), who extracts revenue sharing totals and passesthem down to the AIP 1905. The AIP 1905 takes their revenue share andpasses the ASP revenue share to the ASP 1903. If Customer Corporation1901 pays one bill for several corporate sites, the Proprietor canapportion revenue sharing across the correct AIP 1905 and ASP 1903groups; this information being in the corporate hierarchy recordstorage.

[0186]FIG. 20 is a relational diagram of the hierarchy of an exemplaryAIP, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, acompany (e.g., proprietor 2001) may provide one or more AIPs 2003 (shownas 1 . . . n) and a Development Environment 2005 and Test Bed 2009. TheProprietor 2001 is associated with one or more System Integrators (SIs)2007. The System Integrator 2007 may be associated with none or multipleAIPs 2003. The customer (e.g., corporation) 2015 similarly may supportmultiple AIPs 2003; alternatively, the customer 2015 need not supportany of its own AIPs 2003. As shown, one or more AIPs 2003 are associatedwith or has one IASA 2021, which is a Service Supplier. Additionally,one AIP has one or more ISVs 2019, which may include a Service Supplier2017.

[0187] One AIP 2003 is a Customer of SI 2007 and/or a Corporation 2015.The AIP 2003 is associated with one or more ASPs 2013, one of which is aCustomer 2011 of one or more AIPs 2003. Another ASP 2013 is a ServiceSupplier 2017 to (one or more) AIPs 2003. One ASP 2013 has one or moreCorporate Customers 2015; one Corporation 2015 is a Customer 2011 of oneor more ASPs 2013.

[0188]FIG. 21 provides a diagrammatic representation of DevelopmentEnvironment (DE)/Testbed (TB)/Administrator in DE/TB relationships. AProprietor or company 2101 has a Development Environment 2103 and isassociated with or has one or more SIs 2105. The SI 2105 has a Test Bed2107, where integration and tests are executed. A Service Supplier 2109may be an ASP or an ISV. The company 2101 or SI 2105 has one or moreDevelopers 2111 that are associated with the Development Environment2103. Service Supplier 2109 (e.g., ASP, ISV, the company, or SI) has oneor more Testers 2115. Testers 2115 are associated with the Test Bed2107, Service Supplier 2109 has one or more Administrators 2113.Customer 2117 has one or more Developers 2111, one or more Testers 2115,and one or more Administrators 2113.

[0189]FIG. 22 is a diagram of the operational relationships associatedwith Administration and Support, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. A Proprietor or company 2201, Service Supplier 2203,SI 2205, Customer 2207 has one or more Administrators 2209 and one ormore Support Entities 2211. Allocated Administration 2209 sharesresponsibilities for different activities. Thus, AIP 2211 has anAdministrator 2209 for creating/enrolling a customer (e.g.,corporation). An ASP 2213 has an Administrator 2209 to create servicepackages, and to assign to roles. The Corporate Customer 2217 may alsohave an Administrator; e.g., self subscription. As with the ASP 2213, anISV 2215 has a many-to-one relationship with the AIP 2212.

[0190] A Support agent 2211 shares responsibilities for differentactivities of the system integrator 2205, the AIP 2212, the ASP 2213,and the corporate customer 2217. For example, with respect to thecustomer 2217, the support 2211 may receive problems, filters and passesASP specific problems through to the ASP 2213. Similarly, in service ofthe ASP 2213, the Support 2211 assists customers of the ASP 2213 withits services, and filters and passes on AIP-related problems. TheSupport agent 2211 may communicate with an IASA 2219, a NOC 2221, and/ora WBIC 2223 in carrying out its support functions.

[0191]FIG. 23 is a diagram of a process for setting up of an AIP,according to an embodiment of the present invention. The followingdiagrammatic examples illustrate the actions of the ProprietorAdministrator or Administration, AIP Administrator, ASP Administrator,Corporate Administrator, and the Corporate end-users. The AIP five layerbusiness model is evidenced in the way the activities of provisioningAIPs, ASPs, Corporations and end-users are apportioned among the variousAdministrator staff. FIG. 23 shows the responsibilities of theAdministrator, according to one embodiment of the present invention.This figure is a relational flow diagram which provides a simplifieddiagrammatic illustration of a typical procedure or series of steps inthe establishment of a Proprietor operated AIP according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0192] The diagram illustrates the five layer model of Proprietor, AIP,ASP, Corporate Customers, and Users. An Administration agent 2301controls the actions portrayed by this flow diagram. At 2303, theProprietor creates an AIP. At 2305 the AIP adds an ASP. The AIP enrollsa Corporate Customer, who will utilize the services of the ASP (at2307). At 2309, the ASP adds a Service Package selected from the AIPcommon services. This service package includes the services that the ASPwill need in serving the corporate customer.

[0193] At 2311, the Corporation manages user subscriptions for theservices of the ASP for which the corporation is enrolled and to whichthe user wishes to subscribe. The user may be any of the users discussedin connection with FIG. 11. One example of a user would be an employeeof the corporation, while another would be a customer of thecorporation, as described in the process of FIG. 24.

[0194]FIG. 24 is a diagram of a self-subscription process and use of AIPservices by an end user, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. A User 2401, who is authorized (or classified as apermissible user), may self subscribe at 2403. The user 2401 subscribesfor those services of the ASP which the corporation offers forsubscription to those which it classifies as permissible users. At 2405,the subscribed User 2401 can proceed to use the services. At 2417, as asubscriber, the User may utilize the services associated with thesubscription. Revenues that are derived from this use of the service areshared by the AIP 2409 and the ASP 2411, at 2407.

[0195] FIGS. 25-31 are event diagrams illustrating exemplary AIPoperational activities. FIG. 25 is an event diagram showing the creationof an AIP. In this scenario, the agents or elements involved in theprocess are the Proprietor Administrator 2501, Policy Manager 2502,Profile Manager 2503, AIP Service 2505, ASP 2507, NOC 2509, IASA 2511,and WBIC 2513. In step 1, the company or Proprietor Administrator 2501logs in and is validated by the Policy Manager 2502. The ProprietorAdministrator 2501, as in step 2, invokes the “create AIP” function.Profile Manager 2503 returns the “create AIP” template, wherebyexemplary default services and associated parameters are specified.Next, in step 3, the Proprietor Administrator 2501 fills in the templatewith the new AIP ID and the AIP NODE. Profile Manager 2503 stores thenew AIP profile, per step 4. In step 5, the Proprietor Administrator2501 sets up the company personnel, who will be able to manage the newAIP node. In step 6, the Profile Manger 2503 stores the personnelinformation in the AIP profile. The Proprietor Administrator 2501, as instep 7, then adds the company internal services to the AIP that the AIP(and its ASPs) can access. Profile Manager 2503 creates an AIP productcatalog and stores the services in the product catalog (step 8).

[0196] In step 9, the Proprietor Administrator 2501 then enters externalinterface definitions and information associated with external AIP nodes(i.e., components not maintained by the proprietor). Next, ProfileManager 2503, as in step 10, stores the external interface definitionsin the AIP's external node profiles, which enumerate service parametersand preferences corresponding to the particular AIP component. In step11, the Proprietor Administrator 2501 adds external ASP/ISV services tothe AIP. The Proprietor Administrator 2501 selects an external ASP,subscribes to its services, and the ASP 2505 creates the subscription.The Profile Manager 2503, per step 12, enters the subscription to theexternal services and adds the subscriptions to the AIP product catalog.In step 13, the Proprietor Administrator 2501 then runs a sequence ofverification tests to prove that the AIP is fully functional. In step14, Profile Manager 2503 verifies the hierarchy under the AIP Nodeprofile and displays the verification results. In step 15, ProfileManager 2503 publishes the AIP node Hierarchy to the Network OperationsCenter (NOC) 2509, IASA 2511, and WBIC 2513. The ProprietorAdministrator 2501, as in step 16, may optionally create a company ASP.Because of the five layer AIP business model, having a Proprietor ASPthrough which the Proprietor can directly offer its services, isdesirable. Next, Profile Manager 2503 copies the AIP hierarchy into theProprietor ASP node, per step 17.

[0197]FIG. 26 is an event diagram showing the addition of an ASP to anAIP. The involved agents are AIP Administrator 2601, Policy Manager2603, Profile Manager 2605, ASP Service 2607, AIP Service 2609, ASPAdministrator 2611, NOC 2613, IASA 2615, and WBIC 2617. In step 1, theAIP Administrator 2601 logs in, which is validated by the Policy Manager2603 (step 2). In step 3, the AIP Administrator 2601 invokes the “newASP” profile. In turn, the Profile Manager 2605 displays a “new ASP”template, per step 4. The AIP Administrator 2601, as in step 5, entersthe new ASP ID into the template. In step 6, the Profile Manager 2605stores the ASP ID in a new ASP profile, which is displayed at the node.The AIP Administrator 2601 then enters the AIP personnel who will bemanaging the new ASP, per step 7. This includes personnel, roles, names,access, and related information. In step 8, the Profile Manager 2605stores the personnel information in the ASP profile. In step 9, the AIPAdministrator 2601 enters and sets the ASP internal services; these arethe services that the ASP offers. In step 10, the Profile Manager 2605creates a product catalog for the ASP and enters the services into theASP product catalog. The Profile Manager 2605 the ASP internal serviceprofiles and displays the ASPs product catalog and services. The AIPAdministrator 2601, as in step 11, enters the information on externalinterfaces and sets the interfaces. In step 12, the Profile Manager 2605enters the external interfaces into the ASP's external node profiles.Next, in step 13, the AIP Administrator 2601 selects the AIP servicesthe ASP will use and/or resell.

[0198] In step 14, the Profile Manger 2605 subscribes to the AIPservices. The AIP Administrator 2601, as in step 15, specifies thedetails of the Service Level Agreements (SLA) agreed by the AIP and theASP. In step 16, the Profile Manager 2605 adds the SLA to theSubscription Profiles. In step 17, the AIP Administrator 2601 adds theASP Administrator personnel to the ASP. The Profile Manager 2605 updatesthe ASP profile with the ASP Administrator personnel, per step 18. Instep 19, the AIP Administrator 2601 notifies the ASP Administrator 2611that the ASP is ready to test; the notification may occur though an AIPservice. In step 20, the AIP Administrator 2601 and ASP Administrator2611 jointly run a sequence of verification tests. Upon completion ofthe tests, the AIP Administrator publishes the ASP node hierarchy to NOC2613, IASA 2615, and WBIC 2617, per step 21. In step 22, the ProfileManager distributes the ASP node hierarchy to NOC, IASA, and WBIC.

[0199]FIG. 27 is an event diagram showing the enrollment of a CorporateCustomer. Under this scenario, the involved agents are AIP Administrator2701, Policy Manager 2703, Profile Manager 2705, Join Engine 2707, newCorporate Customer Human Resources (HR) database 2709, ASP Service 2711,and Corporate Administrator 2713. Each time an ASP “signs up” (orenrolls) a new customer, that customer can be provisioned into thesupporting ASP's profile. Once the ASP's customer has a profile the ASPcan manage the Customer. In step 1, the AIP Administrator 2701 logs in.The Policy Manager 2703 validates the login, per step 2. In step 3, theAIP Administrator 2701 creates a new Corporation Node under the ASPnode. At this point, the Profile Manager 2705 adds the Corporation Nodeunder the ASP profile, per step 4. In step 5, the AIP Administrator 2701populates the ASP with the Corporation's employee data. In step 6, theProfile Manager 2705 retrieves meta-data from the Corporations HumanRelations database, and creates a join structure with the CorporateProfile and then extracts the employee data from the Corporate HRdatabase and populates the join structure. User profiles are created foreach employee and stored.

[0200] In step 7, the AIP Administrator 2701 then modifies profiles ofthe Corporate Employees to include the role of Corporate Administration.The Profile Manager 2705, as in step 8, stores the modified employeeprofiles. In step 9, the AIP and Corporate Administrator verify theEmployee profiles and the corporate hierarchy.

[0201]FIG. 28 is an event diagram showing an ASP adding service packs toa corporate portal. In this example, an ASP Administrator 2801 logs on,per step 1; the login is validated by a Policy Manager 2803 (step 2). Instep 3, the ASP Administrator 2801 creates role definitions for thecorporation. Next, in step 4, the Profile Manager 2803 creates the rollsand assigns specific users to the roles. This is iterated through theuser hierarchy. In step 5, the ASP Administrator 2801 defines theservice packages. Next, Profile Manager 2805, as in step 6, creates aservice package, which is an aggregation of services for a user role,assigns the SLA terms and conditions to the service, and links theservice package to roles in the user profile. Each user can access a setof services based on roles. In step 7, the ASP Administrator 2801 runs asequence of verification tests and, together with the CorporateAdministrator 2809, validates a selection of user roles.

[0202]FIG. 29 is an event diagram showing a customer capable of managinguser subscription—e.g., a Corporate Customer Managing EmployeeSubscription. In this process, the involved agents are ASP Administrator2901, Policy Manager 2903, Profile Manager 2905, ASP Service 2907, andEvent Manager 2909. In steps 1 and 2, the ASP Administrator 2901 logson, which is validated by the Policy Manager 2903. In step 3, the ASPAdministrator 2901 enables services for a corporation. The ProfileManager 2905, as in step 4, enables the services, starts the servicecharge, and generates an event. In step 5, the Event Manager 2909receives the event and enables billing for services to the corporation.In step 6, the ASP Administrator 2901 enables a range of employees to beable to subscribe to services. This is representative of a phasedenrollment in which groups of employees are allowed to subscribe on atime-phased schedule.

[0203] In step 7, the ASP Administrator 2901 enables some services bysite. Next, the ASP Administrator 2901, as in step 8, performs someroutine administrative duties such as adding new end-users and deletingthose who have left the corporation.

[0204]FIG. 30 is an event diagram showing a process in which a customerenables users to self-subscribe. In this example, the customer is aCorporate Customer and provides its employees with the capability toperform self-subscription. The login process, as in steps 1 and 2,involves an End User 3001 logging in, and a Policy Manager 3003validating the login. In step 3, the End User 3001 submits requests tosubscribe to services to a Profile Manager 3005, which in turn obtainsthe subscriber information by way of a form and stores the updated Userprofile. In step 4, the End User 3001 selects the services, access,notification, and devices; this information is added to an End UserProfile by the Profile Manager 3005, triggering a subscription event(per step 5). In step 6, the Event Manager 3009 receives the event andenables billing based on the services selected.

[0205]FIG. 31 is an event diagram showing an End User Accessing aService. As with the previous processes, a Subscriber/End User 3101 logsin, per step 1. In step 2, a Policy Manager 3103 validates user usingthe Profile Manager 3105 to get the user's profile. In step 3, the userand devices used are then registered with the Presence Manager 3107.This records that the user is present and is available on at least onedevice. The device characteristics which the user is using are alsorecorded. The Policy Manager 3103, as in step 4, displays the servicesthat the user can access via Corporate Portal 3109. In step 5, the EndUser selects a service. The ASP Service 3111 creates a service usageevent and sends the event to the Event Manager 3113 for the purpose ofgenerating usage, billing and SLA compliance data. ASP Service 3111returns the service.

[0206] In step 6, the End User 3101 terminates the service and ASPService 3111 sends a usage event to Event Manager 3113. End User 3101selects the service, and ASP Service 3111 sends a usage event to theEvent Manager 3113. Next, the End User logs off, per step 7. The PolicyManager 3103 de-registers the user and the user's device from thePresence Manager 3109. The Policy Manager 3103 also sends a logoff eventto the Event Manager 3113.

[0207] Accordingly it is seen that one embodiment of the presentinvention provides an AIP, and provides an AIP associated with aProprietor environment, and that these supply and meet the need for avehicle to enable more efficient use of available capabilities andexpertise and, at the same time, effectively provide a wide variety ofselectable capabilities and services of a dynamic and scalable nature.The economic and technical burdens of independent ASPs are reduced,while at the same time enabling the ASPs to offer services andtechnologies which would heretofore have been beyond their capabilities.In addition, future growth, improvement, and enhancement are built-inwith continuing benefits to the Proprietor, ASPs, XSPs, and theirrespective clienteles.

[0208] While the present invention has been described in connection witha number of embodiments and implementations, the present invention isnot so limited but covers various obvious modifications and equivalentarrangements, which fall within the purview of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing services and content overa network, the method comprising: presenting services includingapplication level services common to a plurality of providers that offerthe common services to a plurality of users corresponding to theplurality of providers, the services being accessible via the network;and integrating a service specific to one of the plurality of theproviders; and selectively presenting the specific service associatedwith the one provider to another one of the plurality of providers.
 2. Amethod according to claim 1, comprising: generating a new service;testing the new service for distribution over the network; and offeringthe tested service as part of a product catalog of services that includethe common services and the specific service.
 3. A method according toclaim 1, comprising: tracking use of the specific service by one of theusers; and accounting for usage of the specific service to compensatethe one provider associated with the specific service.
 4. Acommunication system for providing services and content, the systemcomprising: a platform configured to present a catalog of servicesincluding application level services common to a plurality of providersthat offer the common services to a plurality of users corresponding tothe plurality of providers, wherein one of the plurality of theproviders provides a specific service, the platform being configured tointegrate the specific service and to selectively present the specificservice associated with the one provider to another one of the pluralityof providers.
 5. A system according to claim 4, further comprising: adevelopment system configured to generate a new service; and a test bedconfigured to test the new service, wherein the tested service isoffered by the platform as part of the catalog of services.
 6. A systemaccording to claim 4, wherein the platform includes a billing systemconfigured to track use of the specific service by one of the users, andto account for usage of the specific service to compensate the oneprovider associated with the specific service.
 7. A system for providingapplication services, the system comprising: an associated developmentand test bed environment conducting product and service development andtest; an application service provider environment associated withmultiple application service providers (ASPs) providing applicationservices to customer entities for use in end user devices; and a commonservices environment including hardware and software and providing tosaid application service providers hardware, software and applicationsand integrated application, back-office, and management services used bysaid application service providers in delivering said applicationservices to said customer entities for use in said devices, wherein saidsoftware and applications are provided to said application serviceproviders including software containing content from said developmentand test bed environment.
 8. A system according to claim 7, wherein saiddevelopment and test bed environment includes legacy technology and aservice creation environment and said test bed includes a deploymentsystem for deploying applications created in said creation environment.9. A system according to claim 8, wherein said common servicesenvironment includes at least one of a profile management system, anenrollment and subscription system, a billing system, work flowmanagement and rules engine systems, and a customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) system.
 10. A system for providing applicationservices, the system comprising: a plurality of application serviceprovider (ASP) systems providing application services to customerentities for use in end user devices; and a common services environmentincluding hardware and software and management systems to support saidapplication service provider systems by providing applications andintegrated application, back-office, and management services.
 11. Asystem according to claim 10, wherein said services provided by saidcommon services environment include independent service vendor (ISV)services integrated into said common services environment, theindependent service vendor services being resold by said applicationservice providers in addition to services that are unique to saidapplication service providers.
 12. A system according to claim 10,wherein said applications and application services provided by saidcommon environment are supported with common environment storage ofapplication service provider and common environment data includingproduct catalogs for presentation and management of application serviceprovider products.
 13. A system according to claim 12, wherein saidproduct catalogs include applications provided to said applicationservice providers from said common services environment and additionalapplications from said common services environment for offering to newapplication service providers.
 14. A system according to claim 10,wherein said applications and application services provided by saidcommon services environment include at least one of application serviceprovider order management and processing services and related storage.15. A system according to claim 10, further comprising an access systemlinking said application service providers and customer entities viamultiple networks, said access system including a security managementsystem.
 16. A system according to claim 15, wherein said securitymanagement system provides selectable levels of security.
 17. A systemaccording to claim 16, wherein said security management system includesauthentication and authorization.
 18. A system according to claim 16,wherein said security management system includes public keyinfrastructure (PKI) and certificate authorities.
 19. A system accordingto claim 10, wherein said application infrastructure platform includesan access system linking said application service providers and customerentities via multiple networks, said access system using ubiquitousaccess technologies enabling access by multiple types of network anduser devices.
 20. A system according to claim 10, wherein said devicesinclude public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless and Internetdevices.
 21. A system according to claim 10, wherein said devicesinclude plain old telephone service (POTS) phones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), Web browsers, networked appliances, and sessioninitiation protocol (SIP) telephones.
 22. A system according to claim19, wherein said access system includes transcoder and portal systemsdelivering content based on the requirements of different types ofnetwork and end user devices.
 23. A system according to claim 22,wherein said transcoder provides the presentation to said devices basedon a device profile and an Extensible Markup Language (XML) input datastream.
 24. A system according to claim 22, wherein said portal systemsfilter, aggregate, and present the data to said end user devices.
 25. Asystem according to claim 22, wherein said transcoder converts contentbetween markup languages and adapts content to match end user deviceconfigurations.
 26. A system according to claim 10, wherein saidintegration uses enterprise application integration (EAI) technologieswith a messaging technology including a message bus, workflow manager(WFM) system and rules engine (RE).
 27. A system according to claim 26,wherein said messaging supports point-to-point and publish and subscribetype messaging with varying bandwidths to provide varyingquality-of-service (QoS) levels.
 28. A system according to claim 26,wherein the rules of a process or work flow management (WFM) are definedcentrally and stored in said rules engine.
 29. A system according toclaim 10, wherein said integrated application and back office servicesinclude profile management, distributed transaction management, and apersonalization engine.
 30. A system according to claim 29, wherein saidprofile management supports creating, editing and deleting of customerprofile information.
 31. A system according to claim 29, furthercomprising data stores, wherein said distributed transaction managementenables applications to perform reliable transactions on the datastores.
 32. A system according to claim 10, wherein said integratedapplication and back office services include acquiring and aggregatingof static and dynamic content.
 33. A system according to claim 10,wherein said integrated application and back office services includetrouble ticketing systems providing defect and problem reporting andmanagement.
 34. A system according to claim 10, wherein said integratedapplication and back office services include billing of applicationservice provider customers and application infrastructure platformcustomers.
 35. A system according to claim 34, wherein said billing isperformed through a common service environment billing system.
 36. Asystem according to claim 10, wherein said integrated application andback office services include Service Level Agreement (SLA) managementsupported through application monitoring and reporting as part ofService Level Agreement management.
 37. A system according to claim 10,wherein said integrated application and back office services includeprovisioning of new customers through provisioning management.
 38. Asystem according to claim 10, wherein said application infrastructureplatform includes automated access to a development and test environmentengaging in development of new applications.
 39. A system according toclaim 38, wherein said application infrastructure environment includesautomated access to said new applications for incorporation into theservices of said application service providers.
 40. A system forproviding application services, the system comprising: an applicationservice provider environment including multiple application serviceprovider (ASP) systems providing application services to customerentities for use in end user devices, wherein the ASP systems areconnected by an access system to a data network system and to saidcustomer entities; a service bus for supporting communication among theASP systems; and a common services environment providing applicationsand services including at least one of integrated application,back-office, and management services for used by said applicationservice provider systems, wherein said application service providersystems being connected to said common services environment by theservice bus.
 41. A system according to claim 40, wherein said commonservices environment also includes, an enrollment and subscriptionsystem, a rules engine system, and a customer rules management (CRM)system.
 42. A system according to claim 40, including an independentservice vendor (ISV) environment having multiple independent servicevendors providing services to said application infrastructure platformand said application service providers.
 43. A system according to claim41, wherein said work flow management, rules engine, and customer rulesmanagement systems provide activity diagramming including decisionpoints and operator interaction points.
 44. A system according to claim40, wherein said profile management system builds profiles includinguser, service, device, and security profiles.
 45. A system according toclaim 44, wherein said profile management system uses organizationalname hierarchy.
 46. A system according to claim 44, wherein said profilemanagement system includes policy management based on user and securityprofiles.
 47. A system according to claim 44, wherein said profilemanagement system uses Lightweight Data Access Protocol (LDAP), a MetaDirectory, and Join Engine to a Corporate Human Resources database. 48.A system according to claim 44, wherein said profile management systemcontrols usage based on user, Service Level Agreement (SLA), and deviceto control bandwidth management.
 49. A system according to claim 40,wherein said common services environment includes a service managementsystem.
 50. A system according to claim 49, wherein said servicemanagement system controls new service creation.
 51. A system accordingto claim 50, wherein said service creation adds new services to aproduct catalog and adds new service profiles via profile management.52. A system according to claim 49, wherein said service managementsystem controls said subscription/enrollment system to add new customersand allocate administration to an application service provider.
 53. Asystem according to claim 49, wherein said service management systemcontrols end user subscription and customization via said systemmanagement system.
 54. A system according to claim 53, wherein saidcustomization includes an end user combining services from multipleapplication service providers.
 55. A system according to claim 40,wherein a customer entity is provided application services fromapplications of multiple application service providers in saidapplication service provider environment.
 56. A system according toclaim 40, wherein said application service providers include at leastone application service provider hosted by said applicationinfrastructure platform and at least one remotely hosted applicationservice provider.
 57. A system according to claim 40, wherein saidapplication infrastructure platform includes an independent servicevendor environment including multiple independent service vendors (ISVs)providing services to said application infrastructure platform.
 58. Asystem according to claim 57, wherein said independent service vendorsinclude at least one independent service vendor (ISV) hosted by saidapplication infrastructure platform and at least one remotely hostedindependent service vendor.
 59. A system according to claim 40, whereinsaid application service providers are connected via said data networkto a wireless network and to a public service telephone network.
 60. Asystem according to claim 40, wherein said common services environmentincludes enterprise application integration (EAI) and message orientedmiddleware (MOM).
 61. A method of providing application infrastructureservices, comprising: providing an application infrastructure platform(AIP) including an application service provider environment includingmultiple application service provider (ASP) hardware and softwaresystems for providing application services to customer entities for usein end user devices; providing a common services environment includinghardware and software for interacting with said application serviceprovider hardware and software systems; independent operators operatingsaid application service provider systems in said application serviceprovider environment; and operating said common services environment tointeract with and support said operation of said application serviceprovider systems in said application service provider environment bysaid independent operators and supplying applications and integratedoperating and management services used by said application serviceproviders in delivering said application services to said customerentities for use in said devices.
 62. A method according to claim 61,wherein said operation of said common services environment includes thesupplying of independent service vendor (ISV) services integrated intosaid common services environment.
 63. A method according to claim 62,including said independent operators operating said application serviceprovider systems and reselling said independent service vendor (ISV)services.
 64. A method according to claim 61, including supporting saidapplications and application services provided by said commonenvironment with common environment storage of application serviceprovider and common environment data.
 65. A method according to claim64, wherein said common environment data includes product catalogs forpresentation and management of application service provider products.66. A method according to claim 65, wherein said product catalogsinclude applications provided to said application service providers fromsaid common services environment and additional applications from saidcommon services environment for offering to new application serviceproviders.
 67. A method according to claim 61, wherein said commonservices environment includes an access system linking said applicationservice providers and customer entities via multiple networks.
 68. Amethod according to claim 67, wherein said access system includes asecurity management system.
 69. A method according to claim 67, whereinsaid access system includes ubiquitous access.
 70. A method comprising:developing on behalf of a proprietor information technology (IT) methodsand software; selecting from said methods and software that arerepetitive in said proprietor development; testing said selected methodsand software; providing proprietor application service provider servicesto customers for use in end user devices; providing hardware andsoftware to independent application service providers for use in theirproviding services to their customers for use in end user devices;providing independent service vendor services; and maintaining aninfrastructure of hardware and software including said selected methodsand software and including applications of said independent applicationservice providers and including applications of said independent servicevendors.
 71. A method according to claim 70, wherein each of saidproprietor development and testing, proprietor application serviceprovider services, independent application service provider services,and independent service vendor services, incorporates from saidinfrastructure and offers as their service selected services from theservices offered by said proprietor development and testing, proprietorapplication service provider services, independent application serviceprovider services, and independent service vendor services.
 72. A methodcomprising: a first service provider providing wide area communicationand application services to first customers; said first service providerengaging in ongoing development and testing developing improvements insaid wide area communication and application services provided to saidfirst customers; said first service provider providing to multiplesecond service providers services and apparatus for providingapplication services to customers of said second service providers foruse by end users associated with said second service provider customers;said second service providers individually customizing their services totheir customers; and said first service provider aggregating saidindividually customized services of said second service providers andproviding to said first customers and to said second service providers aselection of at least some of said customized services.
 73. A methodaccording to claim 72, wherein said first service provider provides saidselection of customized services in a catalog of services offered bysaid first service provider.
 74. A method according to claim 73, whereinsaid first service provider periodically adds to said catalog ofservices additional improvements in services developed by said firstservice provider in said ongoing development and testing.
 75. A methodaccording to claim 72, wherein said services and apparatus provided bysaid first service provider to said second service providers includescommunication service and ubiquitous access.
 76. A method according toclaim 72, wherein said services and apparatus provided by said firstservice provider to said first customers and to said second serviceproviders include integrated application support architecture (IASA)implementing business and operational support services (OSS).
 77. Amethod according to claim 76, wherein said integrated applicationsupport architecture communicates with a legacy support system of saidfirst service provider and derives support therefrom.
 78. A method forproviding application services, comprising: creating an identity, node,hierarchy, and profile associated with an application infrastructureplatform (AIP); establishing services that are internal and areaccessible to said AIP; creating AIP product catalog and stores saidinternal services in said catalog; subscribing to services of anexternal application services provider (ASP) and adds said externalservices to said catalog; offering AIP services including said catalogedservices.
 79. A method for adding an application service provider (ASP)to an application infrastructure platform (AIP), comprising: creating anASP profile; establishing services to be offered internally by theprofiled ASP; creating a product catalog for said ASP; determining theservices that the ASP will use or resell; and adding the services of theASP to an AIP catalog.
 80. A method for providing application services,the method comprising: receiving a request from a system of a firstservice provider to include an application service of the first serviceprovider into a product catalog; creating a profile of the first serviceprovider in response to the request; aggregating the application serviceof the first service provider into a product catalog of applicationservices; and presenting the product catalog to a second serviceprovider for subscription.
 81. A method according to claim 80, furthercomprising: aggregating an application service of the second serviceprovider to the product catalog.
 82. A method according to claim 80,further comprising: testing the application services for aggregationinto the product catalog.